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THE WONDERFUL HISTORY OF 
PETER SCHLEMIHL 


THE MAN WHO LOST HIS SHADOW 


BY 


/ 


ADELBERT VON CHAMISSO 


TRANSLATED BY 

FREDERIC HENRY HEDGE, D.D. 


Edited, with Introduction and Notes 

BY 

WILLIAM R. ALGER 


BOSTON, U.S.A. 

GINN & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 
Cbe ^tbenaeum IJregfi; 

1899 

0 - 


\0 


38345 

Copyright, 1899 

By GINN & COMPANY 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 

>=?£CJIV£0, 



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CONTENTS, 


PAGE 

Introduction v 

Chapter I i 

Chapter II 15 

Chapter III 26 

Chapter IV 34 

Chapter V . 51 

Chapter VI . , . 64 

Chapter VII 76 

Chapter VIII 84 

Chapter IX 94 

Chapter X " . 102 

Chapter XI 108 



1 



INTRODUCTION. 


It is over three-quarters of a century since Chamisso 
published his romantic and symbolic story of Peter 
Schlemihl, the man who lost his shadow. It was 
received with a general favor that gave it immediate 
celebrity. It has been translated into almost every 
modern language, and has passed through so many 
editions that it is now fully established as one of the 
little classics of the world. It is so widely known, 
there are in current literature so many allusions to it, 
and it is freighted with so much interest and instruc- 
tion, that it has a good claim to be read by every 
educated person. 

The realistic power with which the tale is constructed, 
the stereoscopic distinctness of the characters, the natu- 
ralness and consistency of the incidents, the wit and 
humor with which the pages abound, give the work an 
attractive charm amply sufficient of itself to carry the 
reader delightedly along from the beginning to the end. 

In addition to this there is a bewitching mystery in 
the fundamental idea of the story. The narrative is a 

V 


VI 


Introduction. 


series of latent riddles loaded with enigmatical morals. 
Just what those morals are it is somewhat difficult to 
explain. Perhaps the author intended to leave this 
aspect of his artistic creation wrapt in indefiniteness 
on purpose to provoke the mental activity of his 
readers, that each one might get at the significance 
of the work for himself. 

It is well known that Goethe was in the habit of 
saying, when asked what he meant to teach by a par- 
ticular poem or tale, that it had no definite didactic 
purpose. He declared that he wished to convey in it 
all that his readers could discover, either in the words 
or between the lines, and that he expected the result to 
be as varied as the talents and acquirements brought to 
the task of interpretation. 

No doubt, however, there will be many readers of 
the strange adventures of Peter Schlemihl who will be 
glad to receive a little help in understanding the real 
meaning of the chief incident in the experience of the 
central personage ; namely, the loss of his shadow. The 
critical reader will find that this artistic and weird nar- 
rative is at once a romantic idyl, an ethical apologue, a 
witty satire, and a philosophical parable. These points 
shall now be briefly shown, and, later on, further eluci- 
dated in notes. 

In the outset it is quite obvious that the thought of 
the writer is not confined to the literal shadow itself. 


l7itroductio7i. vii 

Deeper than this, and far more important, there is 
hidden a parallel spiritual significance. What is, then, 
the metaphorical moral correspondence of the physical 
shadow thrown by a human body when it intercepts 
the light } 

The reputation of a man among those familiar with 
him is the shadow cast by his character. This is the 
idea they entertain of him. When he goes to a foreign 
place, where he is a stranger, he carries no reputation. 
He has lost his moral shadow. The impervious igno- 
rance prevalent concerning him there prevents the ap- 
pearance of any adumbration of what he is. For where 
there is no light to be intercepted, no shadow can be 
thrown. Shadows are alike impossible in complete 
darkness and in universal radiance. It is because when 
a man is with his acquaintances his character is partly 
known and partly unknown, has one aspect illuminated 
and one darkened, that he flings a shadow. This shadow 
is his social repute. But when he appears in a new 
place, where he is a total stranger, he no longer pos- 
sesses this. And to be wholly without repute is to be 
unlike those around you. And to be unlike your fellows 
is to be cut off from sympathetic union with them, and 
to be regarded askance with suspicion and with fear. 
Hence the distress of Peter Schlemihl. 

A more profound thought connected with the subject 
is that he who casts no shadow thereby proves that he 


Introductio7i, 


viii 

is himself no substance. He who fronts the light with 
a background behind him and yet remains shadowless 
is transparent to the day. The day shines through 
him. He, therefore, cannot belong to the order of 
living men, but must be some kind of supernatural or 
preternatural being. Accordingly he is isolated from 
the wholesome class of normal creatures, who shrink 
from the uncanny phenomenon with terror. Hence, 
again, the suffering and grief occasioned to Peter 
Schlemihl by the loss of his shadow, which, although 
in itself it seems to be nothing, is still a sign indica- 
tive of much to those who can interpret it. 

But, after all, the principal lesson of the narrative 
is the lesson of the comparative value of things. As 
between spirit and matter, which is the enduring reality, 
and which the elusive phantom } As between outward 
show and inward worth, which is the shadow and which 
the substance ? In one passage of his work Chamisso 
represents Peter as being much displeased with a com- 
pany of persons who “ spoke seriously of trifles and 
triflingly of serious things.” This is the keynote. 
Things are to be esteemed according to their genuine 
values, not according to their mere appearance. Peter 
himself practiced the inverse of this when he sold the 
companionable index of his personality for a copious 
supply of gold. And bitterly did he rue his folly. For 
he soon learned that peace of mind and friendly com- 


IntrodMctioii. 


IX 


munion with his fellow-men on equal terms were the 
incomparable good of life, the veritable substance, 
whereof money was merely a hollow symbol. 

On the whole, then, the supreme lesson inculcated 
by the experience of Peter Schlemihl is this : What a 
man is, creates his reputation. His reputation is what 
other people think of him. That they should think well 
of him is one of the most important elements of his 
happiness. His social shadow is the projection of his 
personal character. This index may be mistaken, or 
changed, or taken away ; but his genuine character is 
incommunicably his own property. Character cannot, 
like money, be indiscriminately exchanged among men. 
However its outward indications may be confused, how- 
ever its conventional accompaniments may be altered 
or forfeited, it is itself the intrinsic reality, the invalu- 
able solid. Therefore it must never be subordinated 
to anything else, nor its appropriate signal be bartered 
away for any seductive counterfeit. 

In most cases man is not what he thinks he is. In 
many cases he is not what others think him. In every 
case he is what God thinks him. The true desideratum 
IS that he shall himself know just what he is, and aspire 
to become what God would have him be. 




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4 


THE WONDERFUL HISTORY OF 
PETER SCHLEMIHL. 


CHAPTER 1. 

After a fortunate, but for me very trouble- 
some voyage, we finally reached the port. The 
instant that I touched land in the boat I loaded 
myself with my few effects, and, passing through 
the swarming people, I entered the first and 
least house before which I saw a sign hang. I 
requested a room ; the servant measured me 
with a look and conducted me into the garret. 
I caused fresh water to be brought and made 
him exactly describe to me where I should find 
Mr. Thomas John. 

“ Before the north-gate ; the first country-house 
on the right hand ; a large new house of red and 
white marble, with many columns.” 

“ Good.” It was still early in the day. I 


2 The Wonderful History 

opened at once my bundle ; took thence my new 
black cloth coat; clad myself cleanly in my best 
apparel ; put my letter of introduction into my 
pocket, and set out on the way to the man who 
was to promote my modest expectations. 

When I had ascended the long North Street 
and reached the gate, I soon saw the pillars 
glimmer through the foliage. “ Here it is then,” 
thought I. I wiped the dust from my feet with 
my pocket-handkerchief, put my neckcloth in 
order, and rang the bell. 

The door flew open. In the hall I had an ex- 
amination to undergo ; the porter, however, per- 
mitted me to be announced, and I had the honor 
to be called into the park, where Mr. John was 
walking with a select party. I recognized the 
man at once by the lustre of his corpulent self- 
complacency. He received me very well, — as a 
rich man receives a poor fellow, — even turned 
towards me, without turning from the rest of the 
company, and took the offered letter from my 
hand. “ So, so, from my brother. I have heard 
nothing from him for a long time. But he 
is well 1 There,” continued he, addressing the 


of Peter Schlemihl. 


3 


company, without waiting for an answer,^ and 
pointing with the letter to a hill, “there I am 
going to erect the new building.” He broke 
the seal without breaking off the conversation, 
which turned upon riches. 

“ He that is not master of a million, at least,” 
he observed, “ is — pardon me the word — a 
wretch ! ” 

“ Oh ! how true ! ” I exclaimed with a rush of 
overflowing feeling. 

That pleased him. He smiled at me and said : 
“ Stay here, my good friend ; in a while I shall 
perhaps have time to tell you what I think about 
this.” He pointed to the letter, which he then 
thrust into his pocket, and turned again to the 

• Here, and in what follows through the opening chapter, the 
author indicates with a satirical subtlety the contrast in the man- 
ners of the rich toward the poor and those of the poor toward the 
rich, the antithesis of insolence and obsequiousness. He thus 
prepares the way for his central theme, namely, the inverted 
relation in human life of worth and esteem, truth and seeming. 

Milton noticed the fact that the self-sufficiency bred by the 
habit of looking down upon inferiors often leads to a neglect 
of thoughtful and sympathetic attentions. He says : 

Courtesy is sooner found in lowly sheds 
With smoky rafters than in tapestry halls 
And courts of princes, where it first was named. 


4 


The Wonderful History 


company. He offered his arm to a young lady; 
the other gentlemen addressed themselves to 
other fair ones; each found what suited him, 
and all proceeded towards the rose-blossomed 
mount. 

I slid into the rear without troubling any one, 
for no one troubled himself any further about me. 
The company was excessively lively; there was 
dalliance and playfulness ; trifles were sometimes 
discussed with an important tone, but oftener 
important matters with levity ; and especially 
pleasantly flowed the wit over absent friends 
and their circumstances. I was too strange to 
understand much of all this; too anxious and 
introverted to take an interest in such riddles. 

We had reached the rosary. The lovely Fanny, 
the belle of the day, as it appeared, would, out of 
obstinacy, herself break off a blooming bough. 
She wounded herself on a thorn, and as if from 
the dark roses, flowed the purple on her tender 
hand. This circumstance put the whole party 
into a flutter. English plaster was sought for. 
A still, thin, lanky, longish, oldish man who stood 
near, and whom I had not hitherto remarked, put 


of Peter SchlemihL 


5 


his hand instantly into the close-lying breast- 
pocket of his old French gray taffety coat, pro- 
duced thence a little pocketbook, opened it, and 
presented to the lady, with a profound obeisance, 
the required article. She took it without noticing 
the giver and without thanks;^ the wound was 
bound up, and we went forward over the hill, from 
whose back the company could enjoy the wide 
prospect over the green labyrinth of the park 
to the boundless ocean. 

The view was in reality vast and splendid. A 
light point appeared on the horizon between the 
dark flood and the blue of the heaven. “ A tele- 
scope here ! ” cried John ; and already before the 
servants who appeared at the call were in motion 
the gray man, modestly bowing, had thrust his 
hand into his coat pocket and drawn thence a 
beautiful Dollond and handed it to Mr. John. 
Bringing it immediately to his eye, he informed 
the company that it was the ship which went out 
yesterday and was detained in view of port by 
contrary winds. The telescope passed from hand 

^ An example of the impoliteness often practiced in polite 
society. 


6 


The Wonderful History 


to hand, but not again into that of its owner. I, 
however, gazed in wonder at the man and could 
not conceive how the great machine had come 
out of the narrow pocket ; but this seemed to 
have struck no one else, and nobody troubled 
himself any further about the gray man than 
about myself. 

Refreshments were handed round ; the choicest 
fruits of every zone in the costliest vessels. Mr. 
John did the honors with an easy grace and a 
second time addressed a word to me. “ Help 
yourself; you have not had the like at sea.” I 
bowed, but he saw it not ; he was already speak- 
ing with some one else. 

The company would fain have reclined upon 
the sward on the slope of the hill opposite to the 
outstretched landscape had they not feared the 
dampness of the earth. “ It were divine,” ob- 
served one of the party, “had we but a Turkey 
carpet to spread here.” The wish was scarcely 
expressed when the man in the gray coat had 
his hand in his pocket and was busied in draw- 
ing thence, with a modest and even humble de- 
portment, a rich Turkey carpet interwoven with 


of Peter SchlemihL 


7 


gold. The servants received it as a matter of 
course and opened it on the required spot. The 
company without ceremony took their places 
upon it: for myself, I looked again in amaze- 
ment on the man ; at the carpet, which measured 
above twenty paces long and ten in breadth ; and 
rubbed my eyes, not knowing what to think of 
it, especially as nobody saw anything extraor- 
dinary in it. 

I would fain have had some explanation re- 
garding the man and have asked who he was, but 
I knew not to whom to address myself, for I was 
almost more afraid of the gentlemen’s servants 
than of the served gentlemen. At length I took 
courage and stepped up to a young man who 
appeared to me to be of less consideration than 
the rest and who had often stood alone. I begged 
him softly to tell me who the agreeable man in 
the gray coat there was. 

“ He there, who looks like an end of thread 
that has escaped out of a tailor’s needle } ” ^ 

“ Yes, he who stands alone.” 

^ A wit quite like that embodied by Shakespeare in the speeches 
of F alstaff . 


8 The Wonderful History 

“ I don’t know him,” he replied ; and as it 
seemed, in order to avoid a longer conversation 
with me, he turned away and spoke of indifferent 
matters to another. 

The sun began now to shine more powerfully 
and to inconvenience the ladies. The lovely 
Fanny addressed carelessly to the gray man- — 
whom, as far as I am aware, no one had yet 
spoken to — the trifling question, “ Whether he 
had not, perchance, also a tent by him.?*” He 
answered her by an obeisance most profound, as 
if an unmerited honor were done him, and had 
already his hand in his pocket, out of which I 
saw come canvas, poles, cordage, iron-work, in 
short, everything which belongs to the most 
splendid pleasure tent. The young gentlemen 
helped to expand it, and it covered the whole 
extent of the carpet and nobody found anything 
remarkable in it. 

I was already become uneasy, nay, horrified at 
heart, but how completely so, as, at the very next 
wish expressed, I saw him yet pull out of his 
pocket three roadsters. I tell thee, three beauti- 
ful great black horses, with saddle and caparison. 


of Peter Schlemihl. 


9 


Bethink thee ! three saddled horses, still out of 
the same pocket out of which already a pocket- 
book, a telescope, an embroidered carpet twenty 
paces long and ten broad, a pleasure tent of equal 
dimensions, and all the requisite poles and irons 
had come forth ! If I did not protest to thee that 
I saw it myself with my own eyes, thou couldst 
not possibly believe it. 

Embarrassed and obsequious as the man him- 
self appeared to be, little as was the attention 
which had been bestowed upon him, yet to me 
his grisly aspect, from which I could not turn 
my eyes, became so fearful that I could bear it 
no longer. 

I, resolved to steal away from the company, 
which, from the insignificant part I played in it, 
seemed to me an easy affair. I proposed to my- 
self to return to the city, to try my luck again on 
the morrow with Mr. John, and, if I could muster 
the necessary courage, to question him about the 
singular gray man. Had I only had the good 
fortune to escape so well ! 

I had already actually succeeded in stealing 
through the rosary, and in descending the hill 


lo The Wonderful History 

found myself on a piece of lawn, when, fearing to 
be encountered in crossing the grass out of the 
path, I cast an inquiring glance round me. What 
was my terror to behold the man in the gray coat 
behind me and making towards me ! In the next 
moment he took off his hat before me and bowed 
so low as no one had ever yet done to me. There 
was no doubt but that he wished to address me, 
and, without being rude, I could not prevent it. 
I also took off my hat, bowed also, and stood 
there in the sun with bare head as if rooted to 
the ground. I stared at him full of terror and 
was like a bird which a serpent has fascinated. 
He himself appeared very much embarrassed. 
He raised not his eyes, again bowed repeatedly, 
drew nearer, and addressed me with a soft, tremu- 
lous voice, almost in a tone of supplication. 

“ May I hope, sir, that you will pardon my 
boldness in venturing in so unusual a manner to 
approach you ? But I would ask a favor. Permit 
me most condescendingly” — 

“ But, alas ! ” exclaimed I in my trepidation, 
“what can I do for a man who” — We both 
started, and, as I believe, reddened. 


of Peter Schlemihl. 1 1 

After a moment’s silence he again resumed : 
“ During the short time that I had the happiness 
to find myself near you, I have, sir, many times 
— allow me to say it to you — really contem- 
plated with inexpressible admiration the beauti- 
ful, beautiful shadow which, as it were, with a 
certain noble disdain, and without yourself re- 
marking it, you cast from you in the sunshine, — 
the noble shadow at your feet there. Pardon me 
the bold supposition, but possibly you might not 
be indisposed to make this shadow over to me.” 

I was silent, and a mill-wheel seemed to whirl 
round in my head. What was I to make of this 
singular proposition to sell my own shadow 
He must be mad, thought I, and with an altered 
tone, which was more assimilated to that of his 
own humility, I answered thus : — 

“Ha! ha! good friend, have not you then 
enough of your own shadow 1 I take this for 
a business of a very singular sort” — 

He hastily interrupted me : “I have many 
things in my pocket which, sir, might not appear 
worthless to you, and for this inestimable shadow 
I hold the very highest price too small.” 


12 


The Wonderful History 


It struck cold through me again as I was re- 
minded of the pocket. I knew not how I could 
have called him good friend. I resumed the 
conversation and sought, if possible, to set all 
right again by excessive politeness. 

“ But, sir, pardon your most humble servant ; 
I do not understand your meaning. How 
indeed could my- shadow ” — He interrupted 
me : — 

“ I beg your permission only here on the spot 
to be allowed to take up this noble shadow and 
put it in my pocket ; how I shall do that be my 
care. On the other hand, as a testimony of my 
grateful acknowledgment to you, I give you the 
choice of all the treasures which I carry in my 
pocket — the genuine Spring-root,Hhe Mandrake-- 
root, the Change-penny, the Rob-dollar, the nap- 
kin of Roland’s page, a mandrake-man, at your 
own price. But these probably don’t interest 

^ These are references to facts in the popular tales of Germany : 
as, for instance, the Spring- Wurzel, or spring-root, is found in the 
story of Riibezahl ; and the Galgen-Mannlein, or gallows-men, 
were little figures cut out of a root, said by the dealers in such 
things in the Middle Ages to be actual mandrake-roots growing in 
that shape at the foot of a gallows. 


of Peter SchlemihL 


13 


you ; rather Fortunatus’s Wishing-cap, newly 
and stoutly repaired, and a lucky-bag such as 
he had ! ” 

“ The Luck-purse of Fortunatus ! ” I exclaimed, 
interrupting him ; and great as my anxiety was, 
with that one word he had taken my whole mind 
captive. A dizziness seized me, and double ducats 
seemed to glitter before my eyes. 

“ Honored sir, will you do me the favor to view 
and to make trial of this purse ” He thrust his 
hand into his pocket and drew out a tolerably 
large, well-sewed purse of stout Corduan leather 
with two strong strings, and handed it to me. 
I plunged my hand into it and drew out ten gold 
pieces, and again ten, and again ten, and again 
ten.. I extended him eagerly my hand. “Agreed ! 
the business is done; for the purse you have my 
shadow ! ” 

He closed with me; kneeled instantly down 
before me, and I beheld him with an admirable 
dexterity gently loosen my shadow from top to 
toe from the grass, lift it up, roll it together, 
fold it, and finally pocket it. He arose, made 
me another obeisance, and retreated towards the 


14 


The Wonderful History 


rosary. I fancied that I heard him there softly 
laughing to himself ; but I held the purse fast 
by the strings; all round me lay the clear 
sunshine, and within me was yet no power of 
reflection. 


of Peter SchlemihL 


15 


CHAPTER II. 

At length I came to myself and hastened to 
quit the place where I had nothing more to ex- 
pect. In the first place I filled my pockets with 
gold ; then I secured the strings of the purse 
fast round my neck and concealed the purse 
itself in my bosom. I passed unobserved out of 
the park, reached the highway, and took the road 
to the city. As, sunk in thought, I approached 
the gate I heard a cry behind me. 

“Young gentleman! eh! young gentleman! 
hear you ! ” 

I looked round. An old woman called after 
me : — 

“ Do take care, sir, you have lost your shadow ! ” 

“ Thank you, good mother ! ” I threw her a 
gold piece for her well-meant intelligence and 
stopped under the trees. 

At the city gate I was compelled to hear again 
from the sentinel, “ Where has the gentleman left 


1 6 The Wonderful History 

his shadow ? ” And immediately again from some 
women, “ Alas ! the poor fellow has no shadow ! ” 
That began to irritate me, and I became espe- 
cially careful not to walk in the sun. This could 
not, however, be accomplished everywhere; for 
instance, over the broad street which I next must 
approach actually, as mischief would have it, at 
the very moment that the boys came out of 
school. A little rogue, I see him yet, spied out 
instantly that I had no shadow. He proclaimed 
the fact with a loud outcry to the whole assembled 
literary street youth of the suburb, who began 
forthwith to criticise me and to pelt me with 
mud. “ Decent people are accustomed to take 
their shadow with them when they go into the 
sunshine.” 

To defend myself from them I threw whole 
handfuls of gold amongst them and sprang into 
a hackney coach which some compassionate soul 
procured for me. 

As soon as I found myself alone in the rolling 
carriage I began to weep bitterly. The presenti- 
ment must already have arisen in me that far as 
gold on earth transcends in estimation merit and 


of Peter Schlemihl. 


17 


virtue, so much higher than gold itself is the 
shadow valued ; and as I had earlier sacrificed 
wealth to conscience, I had now thrown away 
the shadow for mere gold. What in the world 
could and would become of me ! 

I was again greatly annoyed as the carriage 
stopped before my old inn. I was horrified at 
the bare idea of entering that wretched loft. I 
ordered my things to be brought down, received 
my miserable bundle with contempt, threw down 
some gold pieces, and ordered the coachman to 
drive to the most fashionable hotel. The house 
faced the north and I had not the sun to fear. I 
dismissed the driver with gold, caused the best 
front rooms to be assigned me, and shut myself 
up in them as quickly as I could ! 

What thinkest thou I now began } Oh, my 
dear Chamisso, to confess it even to thee makes 
me blush. I drew the unlucky purse from my 
bosom, and with a kind of desperation which, like 
a rushing conflagration, grew in me with self- 
increasing growth, I extracted gold, and gold, 
and gold, and ever more gold, and strewed it on 
the floor, and strode amongst it, and made it ring 


The Woiiderful History 


again, and, feeding my poor heart on the splendor 
and the sound, flung continually more metal to 
metal, till in my weariness I sank down on the 
rich heap, and rioting thereon rolled and reveled 
amongst it. So passed the day, the evening. I 
opened not my door; night and day found me 
lying on my gold, and then sleep overcame 
me. 

I dreamed of thee. I seemed to stand behind 
the glass door of thy little room and to see thee 
sitting there at thy work-table between a skeleton 
and a bundle of dried plants. Before thee lay 
open Haller, Humboldt, and Linnaeus; on thy 
sofa a volume of Goethe and “ The Magic Ring.” ^ 
I regarded thee long, and everything in thy room, 
and then thee again. Thou didst not move ; thou 
drewest no breath ; thou wert dead ! 

I awoke. It appeared still to be very early. My 
watch had stopped. I was sore all over ; thirsty 
and hungry too ; I had taken nothing since the 
evening before. I pushed from me with loathing 
and indignation the gold on which I had before 
sated my foolish heart. In my vexation I knew 

^ A novel by Baron de La Motte Fouqu^. 


of Peter Schlemihl. 19 

not what I should do with it. It must not lie 
there. I tried whether the purse would swallow 
it again — but no ! None of my windows opened 
upon the sea. I found myself compelled labori- 
ously to drag it to a great cupboard which stood 
in a cabinet and there to pile it. I left only some 
handfuls of it lying. When I had finished the 
work I threw myself exhausted into an easy-chair 
and waited for the stirring of the people in the 
house. As soon as possible I ordered food to be 
brought and the landlord to come to me. 

I fixed in consultation with this man the future 
arrangements of my house. He recommended 
for the services about my person a certain Ben- 
del, whose honest and intelligent physiognomy 
immediately captivated me. He it was whose 
attachment has since accompanied me consol- 
ingly through the wretchedness of life and has 
helped me to support my gloomy lot. I spent 
the whole day in my room among masterless 
servants, shoemakers, tailors, and tradespeople. 
I fitted myself out, and purchased besides a 
great many jewels and valuables for the sake of 
getting rid of some of the vast heap of hoarded 


20 The Wo7iderful History 

up gold; but it seemed to me as if it were im- 
possible to diminish it. 

In the mean time I brooded over my situation 
in the most agonizing despair. I dared not ven- 
ture a step out of my doors, and at evening I 
caused forty waxlights to be lit in my room be- 
fore I issued from the shade. I thought with 
horror on the terrible scene with the schoolboys ; 
yet I resolved, much courage as it demanded, 
once more to make a trial of public opinion. 
The nights were then moonlight. Late in the 
evening I threw on a wide cloak, pressed my hat 
over my eyes, and stole, trembling like a crimi- 
nal, out of the house. I stepped first out of the 
shade in whose protection I had arrived there, in 
a remote square, into the full moonlight, deter- 
mined to learn my fate out of the mouths of the 
passers-by. 

Spare me, dear friend, the painful repetition 
of all that I had to endure. The women often 
testified the deepest compassion with which I 
inspired them, declarations which no less trans- 
pierced me than the mockery of the youth and 
the proud contempt of the men, especially of 


of Peter SchlemihL 


21 


those fat, well-fed fellows who themselves cast a 
broad shadow. A lovely and sweet girl, who, as 
it seemed, accompanied her parents, while these 
suspiciously only looked before their feet, turned 
by chance her flashing eyes upon me. She was 
obviously terrified; she observed my want of a 
shadow, let fall her veil over her beautiful coun- 
tenance, and, dropping her head, passed in silence. 

I could bear it no longer. Briny streams started 
from my eyes, and, cut to the heart, I staggered 
back into the shade. I was obliged to support 
myself against the houses to steady my steps, and 
wearily and late reached my dwelling. 

I spent a sleepless night. The next morning 
it was my first care to have the man in the gray 
coat everywhere sought after. Possibly I might 
succeed in finding him again, and how joyful if 
he repented of the foolish bargain as heartily as I 
did. I ordered Bendel to come to me; he appeared 
to possess address and tact; I described to him 
exactly the man in whose possession lay a treasure 
without which my life was only a misery. I told 
him the time, the place in which I had seen him ; 
I described to him all who had been present, and 


2 2 The Wonderful History 

added, moreover, this token : he should particu- 
larly inquire after a Dollond’s telescope; after a 
gold interwoven Turkish carpet; after a splendid 
pleasure tent ; and finally after the black chargers, 
whose story, we knew not how, was connected 
with that of the mysterious man who seemed of 
‘no consideration amongst them, and whose ap- 
pearance had destroyed the quiet and happiness 
of my life. 

When I had done speaking I fetched out gold, 
such a load that I was scarcely able to carry it, 
and laid upon it precious stones and jewels of a 
far greater value. “ Bendel,” said I, “ these level 
many ways and make easy many things which 
appeared quite impossible ; don’t be stingy with 
it, as I am not, but go and rejoice thy master 
with the intelligence on which his only hope 
depends.” 

He went. He returned late and sorrowful. 
None of the people of Mr. John, none of his 
guests, and he had spoken with all, were able in 
the remotest degree to recollect the man in the 
gray coat. The new telescope was there, and no 
one knew whence it had come ; the carpet, the 


of Peter Schlemihl. 


23 


tent were still there, spread and pitched on the 
selfsame hill ; the servants boasted of the afflu- 
ence of their master, and no one knew whence 
these same valuables had come to him. He him- 
self took his pleasure in them and did not trouble 
himself because he did not know whence he had 
them. The young gentlemen had the horses 
which they had ridden in their stables, and they 
praised the liberality of Mr. John, who on that 
day made them a present of them. Thus much 
was clear from the circumstantial relation of 
Bendel, whose active zeal and able proceeding, 
although with such fruitless result, received from 
me their merited commendation. I gloomily 
motioned him to leave me alone. 

“ I have,” began he again, “ given my master 
an account of the matter which was most impor- 
tant to him. I have yet a message to deliver 
which a person gave me whom I met at the door 
as I went out on the business in which I have 
been so unfortunate. The very words of the 
man were these : ‘ Tell Mr. Peter Schlemihl he 
will not see me here again, as I am going over- 
sea, and a favorable wind calls me at this moment 


24 


The Wonderful History 


to the harbor. But in a year and a day I will 
have the honor to seek him myself, and then to 
propose to him another and probably to him more 
agreeable transaction. Present my most humble 
compliments to him and assure him of my thanks.’ 
I asked him who he was, but he replied your honor 
knew him already.” 

“ What was the man’s appearance } ” cried I, 
filled with foreboding; and Bendel sketched me 
the man in the gray coat, trait by trait, word for 
word, as he had accurately described in his former 
relation the man after whom he had inquired. 

“Unhappy one!” I exclaimed, wringing my 
hands, “ that was the very man 1 ” and there fell, 
as it were, scales from his eyes. 

“ Yes ! it was he ; it was, positively ! ” cried he 
in horror ; “and I, blind and imbecile wretch, have 
not recognized him, have not recognized him, and 
have betrayed my master I ” 

He broke out into violent weeping ; heaped the 
bitterest reproaches on himself, and the despair 
in which he was, inspired even me with com- 
passion. I spoke comfort to him, assured him 
repeatedly that I entertained not the slightest 


of Peter Schlemi/il. 


25 


doubt of his fidelity, and sent him instantly to 
the port, if possible to follow the traces of this 
singular man. But in the morning a great num- 
ber of ships which the contrary winds had detained 
in the harbor had run out, bound to different 
climes and different shores, and the gray man 
had vanished as tracelessly as a dream. 


26 


The Wo7iderful History 


CHAPTER III. 

Of what avail are wings to him who is fast 
bound in iron fetters ? He is compelled only 
the more fearfully to despair. I lay, like Faff- 
ner by his treasure, far from every consolation, 
suffering much in the midst of my gold. But 
my heart was not in it ; on the contrary, I cursed 
it, because I saw myself through it cut off from 
all life. Brooding over my gloomy secret alone, 
I trembled before the meanest of my servants, 
whom at the same time I was forced to envy, 
for he had a shadow ; he might show himself in 
the sun. I wore away days and nights in soli- 
tary sorrow in my chamber, and anguish gnawed 
at my heart. 

There was another who pined away before my 
eyes ; my faithful Bendel never ceased to torture 
himself with silent reproaches that he had be- 
trayed the trust reposed in him by his master, 
and had not recognized him after whom he was 


of Peter Schlemihl, 


27 


despatched, and with whom he must believe that 
my sorrowful fate was intimately interwoven. I 
could not lay the fault to his charge ; I recog- 
nized in the event the mysterious nature of the 
Unknown. 

That I might leave nothing untried,! one time 
sent Bendel with a valuable brilliant ring to the 
most celebrated painter of the city and begged 
that he would pay me a visit. He came. I 
ordered my people to retire, closed the door, 
seated myself by the man, and after I had praised 
his art I came with a heavy heart to the business, 
causing him before that to promise the strictest 
secrecy. 

“ Mr. Professor,” said I, “ could not you, think 
you, paint a false shadow for one who, by the 
most unlucky chance in the world, has become 
deprived of his own 1 ” 

“ You mean a personal shadow ? ” 

“ That is precisely my meaning.” 

“ But,” continued he, “ through what awkward- 
ness, through what negligence could he then lose 
his proper shadow.^ ” 

“ How it happened,” replied I, “ is now of very 


28 The Wonderful History 

little consequence, but thus far I may say,” added 
I, lying shamelessly to him, “ in Russia, whither 
he made a journey last winter, in an extraordi- 
nary cold his shadow froze so fast to the ground 
that he could by no means loose it again.” 

“ The false shadow that I could paint him,” re- 
plied the professor, “ would only be such a one 
as by the slightest agitation he might lose again, 
especially a person who, as appears by your rela- 
tion, has so little adhesion to his own native 
shadow. He who has no shadow, let him keep 
out of the sunshine ; that is the safest and most 
sensible thing for him.” He arose and withdrew, 
casting at me a transpiercing glance which mine 
could not support. I sank back in my seat and 
covered my face with my hands. 

Thus Bendel found me as he at length entered. 
He saw the grief of his master and was desirous 
silently and reverently to withdraw. I looked 
up ; I lay under the burden of my trouble ; I 
must communicate it. 

“ Bendel ! ” cried I, “ Bendel, thou only one who 
seest my affliction and respectest it, seekest not 
to pry into it, but appearest silently and kindly to 


of Peter Schlemihl. 


29 


sympathize, come to me, Bendel, and be the near- 
est to my heart ; I have not locked from thee the 
treasure of my gold, neither will I lock from thee 
the treasure of my grief. Bendel, forsake me not. 
Bendel, thou beholdest me rich, liberal, kind. 
Thou imaginest that the world ought to honor 
me, and thou seest me fly the world and hide 
myself from it. Bendel, the world has passed 
judgment and cast me from it, and perhaps thou 
too wilt turn from me when thou knowest my 
fearful secret. Bendel, I am rich, liberal, kind, 
but — alas! — I have no shadow!” 

“No shadow!” cried the good youth with hor- 
ror, and the bright tears gushed from his eyes. 
“Woe is me, that I was born to -serve a shadow- 
less master ! ” He was silent, and I held my face 
buried in my hands. 

“ Bendel,” added I at length, tremblingly, “ now 
hast thou my confidence, and now canst thou 
betray it ; go forth and testify against me.” He 
appeared to be in a heavy conflict with himself; 
at length he flung himself before me and seized 
my hand, which he bathed with his tears. 

“No!” exclaimed he; “think the world as it 


30 


The Wonderful History 


will, I cannot and will not on account of a 
shadow abandon my kind master; I will act 
justly and not with policy. I will continue with 
you, lend you my shadow, help you when I can, 
and when I cannot, weep with you.” 

I fell on his neck, astonished at such unusual 
sentiment, for I was convinced that he did it not 
for gold. 

From that time my fate and my mode of life 
were in some degree changed. It is indescribable 
how much Bendel continued to conceal my defect. 
He was everywhere before me and with me; fore- 
seeing everything, hitting on contrivances, and 
where danger threatened covering me quickly 
with his shadow, since he was taller and bulkier 
than I. Thus I ventured myself again among 
men and began to play a part in the world. I 
was obliged, it is true, to assume many peculiari- 
ties and humors ; but such became the rich, and 
so long as the truth continued to be concealed I 
enjoyed all the honor and respect which were 
paid to my wealth. I looked calmly forward to 
the promised visit of the mysterious Unknown 
at the end of the year and the day. 


of Peter Schlemihl. 


31 


I felt, indeed, that I must not remain longer in 
a place where I- had once been seen without a 
shadow, and where I might easily be betrayed. 
Perhaps I yet thought too much of the manner 
in which I had introduced myself to Thomas 
John, and it was a mortifying recollection. I 
would therefore here merely make an experi- 
ment, to present myself with more ease and con- 
fidence elsewhere. But that now occurred which 
held me a long time riveted to my vanity; for 
there it is in the man that the anchor bites the 
firmest ground. 

Even the lovely Fanny, whom I in this place 
again encountered, honored me with some notice 
without recollecting ever to have seen me before ; 
for I now had wit and sense. As I spoke, people 
listened, and I could not for the life of me com- 
prehend myself how I had arrived at the art of 
maintaining and engrossing so easily the con- 
versation. 

# * # # 

But why relate to thee the whole long ordinary 
story ? Thou thyself hast often related it to me 
of other honorable people. To the old, well- 


32 


The Wojiderful History 


known play in which I good-naturedly undertook 
a worn-out part, there came in truth to her and 
me and everybody unexpectedly a most peculiar 
and poetic catastrophe. 

As, according to my wont, I had assembled on 
a beautiful evening a party in a garden, I wandered 
with the lady arm in arm at some distance from 
the other guests and exerted myself to strike out 
pretty speeches for her. She modestly cast down 
her eyes and gently returned the pressure of my 
hand, when suddenly the moon broke through 
the clouds behind me and — she saw only her 
own shadow thrown forward before her! She 
started and glanced wildly at me, then again on 
the earth, seeking my shadow with her eyes ; and 
what passed within her painted itself so singu- 
larly on her countenance that I should have 
burst into a loud laugh if it had not itself run 
ice-cold over my back. 

I let her fall from my arms in a swoon, shot 
like an arrow through the terrified guests, reached 
the door, flung myself into the first chaise which 
I saw on the stand and drove back to the city, 
where this time, to my cost, I had left the cir- 


of Peter Schlemihl, 


33 


cumspect Bendel. He was terrified as he saw 
me ; one word revealed to him all. Post horses 
were immediately fetched. I took only one of 
my people with me, an arrant knave called Ras- 
cal, who had contrived to make himself necessary 
to me by his cleverness, and who could suspect 
nothing of the present occurrence. That night 
I left upwards of a hundred miles behind me. 
Bendel remained behind me to discharge my es- 
tablishment, to pay money, and to bring me what 
I most required. When he overtook me next 
day I threw myself into his arms and swore to 
him never again to run into the like folly, but in 
future to be more cautious. We continued our 
journey without pause over the frontiers and 
the mountains, and it was not till we began to 
descend and had placed those lofty bulwarks be- 
tween us and our former unlucky abode that I 
allowed myself to be persuaded to rest from the 
fatigues I had undergone, in a neighboring and 
little frequented bathing place. 


34 


The Wonderful History 


CHAPTER IV.i 

I MUST pass in my relation hastily over a time 
in which how gladly would I linger could I but 
conjure up the living spirit of it with the recollec- 
tion. But the color which vivified it, and which 
only can vivify it again, is extinguished in me ; 
and when I seek in my bosom what then so 
mightily animated it, the grief and the joy, the 
innocent illusion, — then do I vainly smite a rock 
in which no living spring now dwells ; for the 
god is departed from me. How changed does 
this past time now appear to me ! I would act 
in the watering place an heroic character, ill- 
studied, and myself a novice on the boards, and 

^ This chapter presents a vivid illustration of the histrionic de- 
ceits with which human life abounds. It shows how often, amidst 
the obscurity and delusive complications of this world, men, both 
voluntarily and involuntarily, play parts which do not belong to 
them. Continually persons are not seen to be what they are, but 
are believed to be what they are not. Meanwhile the supreme 
victory and blessedness of man are really to be what he ought to 
be, seem to others to be what he is, and be treated accordingly 
by all. 


of Peter SchlemihL 


35 


my gaze lured from my part by a pair of blue 
eyes. The parents, deluded by the play, offer 
everything only to make the business quickly 
secure ; and the poor farce closes in mockery. 
And that is all, all ! That presents itself now to 
me so absurd and commonplace, although it is 
terrible that that can thus appear to me which 
then so richly, so luxuriantly, swelled my bosom. 
Mina ! as I wept at losing thee, so weep I still to 
have lost thee also in myself. Am I then become 
so old? Oh, melancholy reason! Oh, but for 
one pulsation of that time ! one moment of that 
illusion ! But no ! alone on the high waste sea 
of thy bitter flood I and long out of the last cup 
of wine the elfin has vanished ! 

I had sent forward Bendel with some purses 
of gold to procure for me a dwelling adapted to 
my needs. He had there scattered about much 
money and expressed himself somewhat indefi- 
nitely respecting the distinguished stranger whom 
he served, for I would not be named, and that 
filled the good people with extraordinary fancies. 
As soon as my house was ready Bendel returned 
to conduct me thither. We set out. 


36 The Wonderful History 

About three miles from the place, on a sunny 
plain, our progress was obstructed by a gay festal 
throng. The carriage stopped. Music, sound 
of bells, discharge of cannon were heard ; a loud 
vivat ! rent the air ; before the door of the carriage 
appeared, clad in white, a troop of damsels of ex- 
traordinary beauty, but who were eclipsed by one 
in particular as the stars of night by the sun. 
She stepped forth from the midst of her sisters ; 
the tall and delicate figure kneeled blushing be- 
fore me and presented to me on a silken cushion a 
garland woven of laurel, olive branches, and roses, 
while she uttered some words about majesty, ven- 
eration, and love, which I did not understand, but 
whose bewitching silver tone intoxicated my ear 
and heart. It seemed as if the heavenly appari- 
tion had some time already passed before me. 
The chorus struck in and sung the praises of a 
good king and the happiness of his people. 

And this scene, my dear friend, in the face of 
the sun ! She kneeled still only two paces from 
me, and I without a shadow could not spring over 
the gulf, could not also fall on the knee before 
the angel ! Oh ! what would I then have given 


of Peter SchlemihL 


37 


for a shadow ! I was compelled to hide my shame, 
my anguish, my despair, deep in the bottom of my 
carriage. At length Bendel recollected himself 
on my behalf. He leaped out of the carriage on 
the other side. I called him back and gave him 
out of my jewel case, which lay at hand, a splendid 
diamond crown which had been made to adorn the 
brows of the lovely Fanny ! He stepped forward 
and spoke in the name of his master, who could 
not and would not receive such tokens of homage ; 
there must be some mistake; and the good people 
of the city were thanked for their good will. As 
he said this, he took up the proffered wreath and 
laid the brilliant coronet in its place. He then ex- 
tended respectfully his hand to the lovely maiden, 
that she might arise, and dismissed with a sign 
clergy, magistrates, and all the deputations. No 
one else was allowed to approach. He ordered 
the throng to divide and make way for the horses, 
sprang again into the carriage, and on we went 
at full gallop through a festive archway of foliage 
and flowers, towards the city. The discharges 
of cannon continued. The carriage stopped be- 
fore my house. I sprang hastily in at the door, 


38 


The Wonderful History 


dividing the crowd which the desire to see me 
had collected. The mob hurrahed under my 
window, and I let double ducats rain out of it. 
In the evening the city was voluntarily illumi- 
nated. 

And yet I did not at all know what all this 
could mean, and who I was supposed to be. I 
sent out Rascal to make inquiry. He brought 
word to this effect: that the people had received 
certain intelligence that the good king of Prussia 
traveled through the country under the name of 
a Graf; that my adjutant had been recognized; 
and, finally, how great the joy was as they became 
certain that they really had me in the place. 
They now saw clearly that I evidently desired to 
maintain the strictest incognito, and how very 
wrong it had been to attempt so importunately 
to lift the veil. But I had resented it so graciously, 
so kindly, — I should certainly pardon their good- 
heartedness. 

The thing appeared so amusing to the rogue 
that he did his best, by reproving words, the 
more to strengthen the good folk in their belief. 
He made a very comical recital of all this, and 


of Peter Schlemihl. 


39 


as he found that it diverted me, he made a joke 
to me of his own additional wickedness. Shall I 
confess it? It flattered me, even by such means, 
to be taken for that honored head. 

I commanded a feast to be prepared for the 
evening of the next day, beneath the trees which 
overshadowed the open space before my house, 
and the whole city to be invited to it. The mys- 
terious power of my purse, the exertions of Ben- 
del, and the active invention of Rascal succeeded 
in triumphing over time itself. It is really aston- 
ishing how richly and beautifully everything was 
arranged in those few hours. The splendor and 
abundance which exhibited themselves, and the 
ingenious lighting up, so admirably contrived 
that I felt myself quite secure, left me nothing 
to desire. I could not but praise my servants. 

The evening grew dark ; the guests appeared 
and were presented to me. Nothing more was 
said about Majesty; I was styled, with deep 
reverence and obeisance, Herr Graf. What was 
to be done? I allowed the Herr Graf to please, 
and remained from that hour the Graf Peter. In 
the midst of festive multitudes my soul yearned 


40 The Wonderftil History 

alone after one. She entered late — she was and 
wore the crown. She followed modestly her 
parents, and seemed not to know that she was 
the loveliest of all. They were presented to me 
as Mr. Forest-master, his lady, and their daughter. 
I found many agreeable and obliging things to 
say to the old people; before the daughter I 
stood like a rebuked boy and could not bring 
out one word. I begged her at length, with a 
faltering tone, to honor this feast by assuming 
the office whose insignia she graced. She en- 
treated with blushes and a moving look to be 
excused ; but, blushing still more than herself in 
her presence, I paid her as her first subject my 
homage with a most profound respect, and the 
hint of the Graf became to all the guests a com- 
mand which every one with emulous joy hastened 
to obey. Majesty, innocence, and grace presided 
in alliance with beauty over a rapturous feast. 
Mina’s happy parents believed their child only 
thus exalted in honor of them. I myself was in 
an indescribable intoxication. I caused all the 
jewels which yet remained of those which I had 
formerly purchased in order to get rid of bur- 


of Peter SchlemihL 


41 


densome gold — all the pearls, all the precious 
stones — to be laid in two covered dishes, and at 
the table, in the name of the queen, to be dis- 
tributed round to her companions and to all the 
ladies. Gold, in the mean time, was incessantly 
strewn over the enclosing lists among the exult- 
ing people. 

Bendel the next morning revealed to me in 
confidence that the suspicion which he had long 
entertained of Rascal’s honesty was now become 
certainty ; that he had yesterday embezzled whole 
purses of gold. “ Let us permit,” replied I, “ the 
poor scoundrel to enjoy the petty plunder. I 
spend willingly on everybody ; why not on him 1 
Yesterday he and all the fresh people you have 
brought me served me honestly; they helped me 
joyfully to celebrate a joyful feast.” 

There was no further mention of it. Rascal 
remained the. first of my servants, but Bendel 
was my friend and my confidant. The latter was 
accustomed to regard my wealth as inexhaustible, 
and he pried not after its sources ; entering into 
my humor, he assisted me rather to discover 
opportunities to exercise it and to spend my 


42 


The Wonderful History 


gold. Of that unknown one, that pale sneak, he 
knew only this: that I could alone through him 
be absolved from the curse which weighed on 
me, and that I feared him on whom my sole 
hope reposed. That, for the rest, I was con- 
vinced that he could discover me anywhere; I 
him nowhere; and that, therefore, awaiting the 
promised day, I abandoned every vain inquiry. 

The magnificence of my feast and my behavior 
at it held at first the credulous inhabitants of the 
city firmly to their preconceived opinion. True, 
it was soon stated in the newspapers that the 
whole story of the journey of the king of Prussia 
had been a mere groundless rumor; but a king 
I now was, and must spite of everything a king 
remain, and truly one of the most rich and royal 
who had ever existed; only people did not rightly 
know what king. The world has never had 
reason to complain of the scarcity of monarchs, 
at least in our time. The good people, who had 
never seen any of them, pitched with equal cor- 
rectness first on one and then on another; Graf 
Peter still remained who he was. 

At one time appeared amongst the guests at 


of Peter Schlemihl, 


43 

the Bath a tradesman who had made himself 
bankrupt in order to enrich himself, and who en- 
joyed universal esteem, and had a broad though 
somewhat pale shadow. The property which he 
had scraped together he resolved to lay out in 
ostentation, and it even occurred to him to enter 
into rivalry with me. I had recourse to my purse, 
and soon brought the poor fellow to such a pass 
that in order to save his credit he was obliged to 
become bankrupt a second time and hasten over 
the frontier. Thus I got rid of him. In this 
neighborhood I made many idlers and good- 
for-nothing fellows. 

With all the royal splendor and expenditure 
by which I made all succumb to me, I still in my 
own house lived very simply and retired. I had 
established the strictest circumspection as a rule. 
No one except Bendel, under any pretense what- 
ever, was allowed to enter the rooms which I 
inhabited. So long as the sun shone I kept my- 
self shut up there, and it was said the Graf is 
employed in his cabinet. With this employment 
numerous couriers stood in connection whom I 
for every trifle sent out and received. I received 


44 


The Wo7tderful History 


company only under my trees, or in my hall 
arranged and lighted according to Bendel’s plan. 
When I went out, on which occasions it was 
necessary that I should be constantly watched 
by the Argus eyes of Bendel, it was only to the 
forester’s garden, for the sake of one alone; for 
my love was the innermost heart of my life. 

Oh, my good Chamisso ! I will hope that thou 
hast not yet forgotten what love is! Mina was 
really an amiable, kind, good child. I had taken 
her whole imagination captive. She could not, 
in her humility, conceive how she could be worthy 
that I should have fixed my regard on her alone ; 
and she returned my love with all the youthful 
power of an innocent heart. She loved like a 
woman, offering herself wholly up ; self-forgetting; 
living wholly and solely for him who was her life. 

But I — oh, what terrible hours — terrible and 
yet worthy that I should wish them back again 
— have I often wept on Bendel’s bosom, when, 
after the first unconscious intoxication, I recol- 
lected myself ; looked sharply into myself ! — I, 
without a shadow, with knavish selfishness de- 
stroying this angel, this pure soul. Then did I 


of Peter SchlemihL 


45 


resolve to reveal myself to her; then did I swear 
to tear myself from her and to fly; then did I 
burst out into tears and concert with Bendel 
how in the evening I should visit her in the 
forester’s garden. 

At other times I flattered myself with great 
expectations from the rapidly approaching visit 
from the gray man, and wept again when I had 
in vain tried to believe in it. I had calculated 
the day on which I expected again to see the 
fearful one ; for he had said in a year and a day, 
and I believed his word. 

The parents, good, honorable old people, who 
loved their only child extremely, were amazed, 
and knew not what to do. Earlier they could 
not have believed that the Graf Peter could think 
only of their child ; but now he really loved her 
and was beloved again. The mother was proba- 
bly vain enough to believe in the probability of a 
marriage and to seek for it ; the sound masculine 
understanding of the father did not give way to 
such overstretched imaginations. Both were per- 
suaded of the purity of my love ! they could do 
nothing more than pray for their child. 


46 The Wonderful History 

I have laid my hand on a letter from Mina of 
this date which I still retain. Yes, this is her 
own writing. I transcribe it for thee. 

* * * * 

Thou canst imagine how the words must cut 
through my heart. I explained to her that I was 
not what people believed me ; that I was only a 
rich but infinitely miserable man. That a curse 
rested on me, which must be the only secret be- 
tween us, since I was not yet without hope that 
it should be loosed. That this was the poison of 
my days; that I might drag her down with me 
into the gulf — she who was the sole light, the 
sole happiness, the sole heart of my life. Then 
wept she again because I was unhappy. Ah, she 
was so loving, so kind! To spare me but one 
tear, she, and with what transport, would have 
sacrificed herself without reserve. 

In the mean time she was far from rightly 
comprehending my words ; she conceived in me 
some prince on whom had fallen a heavy ban, 
some high and honored head, and her imagina- 
tion amidst heroic pictures limned forth her lover 
gloriously. 


of Peter Schlemihl. 


47 


Once I said to her: “ Mina, the last day in the 
next month may change my fate and decide it; 
if not, I must die, for I will not make thee un- 
happy.” Weeping, she hid her head in my bosom. 
“ If thy fortune changes, let me know that thou 
art happy. I have no claim on thee. Art thou 
wretched.^ bind me to thy wretchedness, that I 
may help thee to bear it.” 

“ Maiden ! maiden ! take it back, that word, 
that foolish word which escaped thy lips. And 
knowest thou this wretchedness ? Knowest thou 
this curse Knowest who thy love, — what he.^^ 
Seest thou not that I convulsively shrink together, 
and have a secret from thee ? ” She fell sobbing 
to. my feet and repeated with tears her entreaty. 

I announced to the Forest-master, who entered, 
that it was my intention on the first approaching 
of the month to solicit the hand of his daughter. 
I fixed precisely this time because in the interim 
many things might occur which might influence 
my fortunes ; that I was unchangeable in my love 
to his daughter. 

The good man was quite startled as he heard 
such words out of the mouth of Graf Peter. He 


48 The Wonderful History 

fell on my neck and again became quite ashamed 
to have thus forgotten himself. Then he began 
to doubt, to weigh, and to inquire. He spoke of 
dowry, security, and the fortune for his beloved 
child. I thanked him for reminding me of these 
things. I told him that I desired to settle myself 
in this country, where I seemed to be beloved, 
and to lead a care-free life. I begged him to pur- 
chase the finest estate that the country had to 
offer in the name of his daughter, and to charge 
the cost to me. A father could, in such matter, 
best serve a lover. It gave him enough to do, 
for everywhere a stranger was before him, and 
he could only purchase for about a million. 

My thus employing him was, at the bottom, an 
innocent scheme to remove him to a distance, 
and I had employed him similarly before. For I 
must confess that he was rather wearisome. The 
good mother was, on the contrary, somewhat 
deaf, and not, like him, jealous of the honor of 
entertaining the Graf. 

The mother joined us. The happy people 
pressed me to stay longer with them that even- 
ing. I dared not remain another minute. I saw 


of Peter SchlemihL 


49 


already the rising moon glimmer on the horizon ; 
my time was up. 

The next evening I went again to the forester’s 
garden. I had thrown my cloak over my shoulders 
and pulled my hat over my eyes. I advanced to 
Mina. As she looked up and beheld me, she 
gave an involuntary start, and there stood again 
clear before my soul the apparition of that terri- 
ble night when I showed myself in the moonlight 
without a shadow. It was actually she ! But had 
she also recognized me } She was silent and 
thoughtful; on my bosom lay a hundredweight 
pressure. I arose from my seat. She threw her- 
self silently weeping on my bosom. I went. 

I now found her often in tears. It grew darker 
and darker in my soul ; the parents meanwhile 
swam in supreme felicity ; the eventful day passed 
on sad and sullen as a thundercloud. The eve 
of the day was come. I could scarcely breathe. 
I had in precaution filled several chests with gold. 
I watched the midnight hour approach. It struck. 

I now sat, my eye fixed on the fingers of the 
clock, counting the minutes, the seconds, like 
dagger-strokes. At every noise which arose I 


50 


The Wonderful History 


started up; the day broke. The leaden hours 
crowded upon each other. It was noon — even- 
ing — night; as the clock fingers sped on, hope 
withered ; it struck eleven and nothing appeared ; 
the last minutes of the last hour fell, and nothing 
appeared. It struck the first stroke — the last 
stroke of the twelfth hour, and I sank hopeless 
and in boundless tears upon my bed. On the 
morrow I should, forever shadowless, solicit the 
hand of my beloved. Towards morning an 
anxious sleep pressed down my eyelids. 


of Peter SchlemihL 


51 


CHAPTER V.i 

It was still early morning when voices, which 
were raised in my antechamber in violent dis- 
pute, awoke me. I listened. Bendel forbade 
entrance ; Rascal swore high -and hotly that he 
would receive no commands from his fellow, and 
insisted in forcing his way into my room. The 
good Bendel warned him that such words, came 
they to my ear, would turn him out of his most 

^ This chapter, with the three succeeding ones, is occupied in 
working out in a strikingly original way the mythical doctrine, so 
common in the folk-lore of the Middle Age, of the sale of the 
soul to the devil in return for riches and pleasure. It is a new 
variation of the Faust legend. The mysterious man in the gray 
coat is a companion character to the Mephistopheles of Goethe. 
And the victim, after the disastrous failure of his experiment and 
his desperate repudiation of the compact, becomes a powerfully 
reminiscent fa7ttasia of the Wandering Jew. 

The shadow of Schlemihl is the symbol of his immortal soul, 
according to the immemorial beliefs of the early world, as evi- 
denced in language by the eidolon of the Greeks, and the iimbra of 
the Romans, and the synonyms shade and ghost in English. In 
his development of the story Chamisso treats these notions with 
an exquisite combination of wit and humor, dialectic skill and 
literary felicity, which the reader will do well to study carefully. 


52 


The Wonderful History 


advantageous service. Rascal threatened to lay 
hands on him if he any longer obstructed his 
entrance. 

I had half dressed myself. I flung the door 
wrathfully open and advanced to Rascal : “ What 
wantest thou, villain } ” He stepped two strides 
backwards and replied quite coolly: “To request 
you most humbly, Herr Graf, just to allow me to 
see your shadow ; the sun shines at this moment 
so beautifully in the court.” 

I was struck as with thunder. It was some 
time before I could recover my speech. “ How 
can a servant towards his master” — He inter- 
rupted very calmly my speech : — 

“ A servant may be a very honorable man, and 
not be willing to serve a shadowless master. I 
demand my discharge.” 

It was necessary to try other chords. “ But, 
honest, dear Rascal, who has put the unlucky 
idea into your head ? How canst thou believe ” — 

He proceeded in the same tone: “People will 
assert that you have no shadow ; and, in short, 
you show me your shadow, or give me my dis- 
charge.” 


of Peter Schlemihl, 


53 


Bendel, pale and trembling, but more discreet 
than I, gave me a sign. I sought refuge in the 
all-silencing gold, and that had lost its power. 
He threw it at my feet. “ From a shadowless 
man I accept nothing ! ” He turned his back 
upon me and went most deliberately out of the 
room, with his hat upon his head and whistling a 
tune. I stood there with Bendel as one turned to 
stone, thoughtless, motionless, gazing after him. 

Heavily sighing, and with death in my heart, 
I prepared myself to redeem my promise, and, 
like a criminal before his judge, to appear in the 
Forest-master’s garden. I alighted in the dark 
arbor, which was named after me, and where they 
would be sure also at this time to await me. The 
mother met me, care-free and joyous. Mina sat 
there, pale and lovely as the first snow which 
often in the autumn kisses the last flowers and 
then instantly dissolves into bitter water. The 
Forest-master went agitatedly to and fro, a written 
paper in his hand, and appeared to force down 
many things in himself which painted themselves 
with rapidly alternating flushes and paleness on 
his otherwise immovable countenance. He came 


54 


The Wo7iderful History 


up to me as I entered, and with frequently choked 
words begged to speak with me alone. The path 
in which he invited me to follow him conducted 
towards an open, sunny part of the garden. I 
sank speechless on a seat, and then followed a 
long silence, which even the good mother dared 
not interrupt. 

The Forest-master raged continually with un- 
equal steps to and fro in the arbor, and, suddenly 
halting before me, glanced on the paper which 
he held and demanded of me with a searching 
look : — 

“ May not, Herr Graf, a certain Peter Schle- 
mihl be not quite unknown to you ? ” I was 
silent. “ A man of superior character and singu- 
lar attainments” — He paused for an answer. 

“ And suppose I were the same man ? ” 

“Who,” added he vehemently, “has by some 
means lost his shadow!” 

“Oh, my foreboding, my foreboding! ” exclaimed 
Mina. “Yes, I have long known it, — he has 
no shadow”; and she flung herself into the arms 
of her mother, who, terrified, clasped her con- 
vulsively, and upbraided her that to her own hurt 


of Peter SchlemihL 


55 


she had kept to herself such a secret. But she, 
like Arethusa, was changed into a fountain of 
tears, which at the sound of my voice flowed still 
more copiously, and at my approach burst forth 
in torrents. 

“And you,” again grimly began the Forest- 
master, “and you, with unparalleled impudence, 
have made no scruple to deceive these and my- 
self, and you give out that you love her whom 
you have so deeply humbled. See there, how 
she weeps and writhes ! Oh, horrible ! horrible ! ” 

I had to such a degree lost all reflection that, 
talking like one crazed, I began : “ And, after all, 
a shadow is nothing but a shadow; one can do 
very well without that, and it is not worth while 
to make such a riot about it.” But I felt so 
sharply the baselessness of what I was saying 
that I stopped of myself, without his deigning 
me an answer, and I then added : “ What one 
has lost at one time may be found again at 
another! ” 

He rushed fiercely towards me. “Confess to 
me, sir I confess to me, how became you deprived 
of your shadow ” 


56 


The Wonderful History 


I was compelled again to lie. “ A rude fellow 
one day trod so heavily on my shadow that he 
rent a great hole in it. I have only sent it to be 
mended, for money can do much, and I was to 
have received it back yesterday.” 

“Good, sir; very good!” replied the Forest- 
master. “You solicit my daughter’s hand ; others 
do the same. I have, as her father, to care for 
her. I give you three days in which you may 
see after a shadow. If you appear before me 
within these three days with a good, well-fitting 
shadow, you shall be welcome to me ; but on the 
fourth day — I tell you plainly — my daughter is 
the wife of another.” 

I would yet attempt to speak a word to Mina, 
but she clung, sobbing violently, only closer to 
her mother’s breast, who motioned me to be 
silent and to withdraw. I reeled away, and the 
world seemed to close itself behind me. 

Escaped from Bendel’s affectionate oversight, 
I traversed in erring course woods and fields. 
The perspiration of my agony dropped from my 
brow; a hollow groaning convulsed my bosom; 
madness raged within me. 


of Peter SchlemiJiL 


57 


I know not how long this had continued, when, 
on a sunny heath, I felt myself plucked by the 
sleeve. I stood still and looked round ; it was 
the man in the gray coat, who seemed to have 
run himself quite out of breath in pursuit of me. 
He immediately began : — 

“ I had announced myself for to-day, but you 
could not wait the time. There is nothing amiss, 
however, yet. You consider the matter, receive 
your shadow again in exchange, which is at your 
service, and turn immediately back. You shall 
be welcome in the Forest-master’s garden ; the 
whole has been only a joke. Rascal, who has 
betrayed you, and who seeks the hand of your 
bride, I will take charge of ; the fellow is ripe.” 

I stood there as still asleep. “ Announced for 
to-day } ” I counted over again the time ; he was 
right. I had constantly miscalculated a day. I 
sought with the right hand in my bosom for my 
purse ; he guessed my meaning and stepped two 
paces backwards. 

“No, Herr Graf, that is in too good hands; 
keep you that.” I stared at him with eyes of 
inquiring wonder, and he proceeded : “ I request 


58 


The Wonderful History 


only a trifle as memento. You be so good as to 
set your name to this paper.” On the parchment 
stood the words : — 

“ By virtue of this my signature, I make over 
my soul to the holder of this, after its natural 
separation from the body.” 

I gazed with speechless amazement alternately 
at the writing and the gray Unknown. Mean- 
while with a new-made pen he had taken up a 
drop of blood which flowed from a fresh thorn- 
scratch on my hand, and presented it to me. 

“ Who are you, then ? ” at length I asked him. 

“What signifies it.f^” he replied. “And is not 
that plain enough to be seen in me.^ A poor 
devil, a sort of learned man and doctor, who in 
return for precious arts receives from his friends 
poor thanks, and, for himself, has no other amuse- 
ment on earth but to make his little experiments. 
But, however, sign. To the right there: Peter 
S cHLEMIHL.” 

I shook my head and* said: “ Pardon me, sir; I 
do not sign that.” 

“Not.?” replied he in amaze; “and why 
not.?” 


of Peter SchlemihL 


59 

“ It seems to me to a certain degree serious to 
stake my soul on a shadow.” 

“ So, so,” repeated he, “ serious ! ” and he laughed 
almost in my face. “ And if I might venture to 
ask, what sort of a thing is that soul of yours? 
Have you ever seen it? And what do you think 
of doing with it when you are dead ? Be glad 
that you have found an amateur who in your life- 
time is willing to pay you for the bequest of this 
X, of this galvanic power, or polarized activity, 
or whatever this silly thing may be, with some- 
thing actual ; that is to say, with your real shadow, 
through which you may arrive at the hand of your 
beloved and at the accomplishment of all your 
desires. Will you rather push forth and deliver 
up that poor young creature to that low-bred 
scoundrel Rascal? No; you must witness that 
with your own eyes. Here, I lend you the Tarn- 
cap ” (the cap of invisibility), — he drew it from 
his pocket, — “and we will proceed unseen to the 
forester’s garden.” 

I must confess that I was excessively ashamed 
of being ridiculed by this man. I detested him 
from the bottom of my heart; and I believe 


6o 


The Wonderf^ll History 


that this personal antipathy withheld me, more 
than principle or prejudice, from purchasing 
my shadow, essential as it was, by the required 
signature. The thought also was intolerable to 
me of making the excursion which he proposed 
in his company. To see this abhorred sneak, 
this mocking kobold, step between me and my 
beloved, two torn and bleeding hearts, revolted 
my innermost feeling. I regarded what was 
past as predestined, and my wretchedness as 
unchangeable, and, turning to the man, I said 
to him: — 

“Sir, I have sold you my shadow for this in 
itself most excellent purse, and I have sufficiently 
repented of it. Let the bargain be at an end, in 
God’s name ! ” He shook his head and made a 
very gloomy face. I continued : “ I will then sell 
you nothing further of mine, even for this offered 
price of my shadow; and, therefore, I shall sign 
nothing. From this you may understand that 
the cap- wearing to which you invite me must be 
much more amusing for you than for me. Excuse 
me, therefore ; and as it cannot now be otherwise, 
let us part.” 


of Peter Schlemihl. 6i 

“ It grieves me, Herr Schlemihl, that you 
obstinately decline the business which I propose 
to you. Perhaps another time I may be more 
fortunate. Till our speedy meeting again! — 
Apropos: Permit me yet to show you that the 
things which I purchase I by no means suffer to 
grow mouldy, but honorably preserve, and that 
they are well used by me.” 

With that he drew my shadow out of his pocket, 
and with a dexterous throw, unfolding it on the 
heath, spread it out on the sunny side of his feet, 
so that he walked between two attendant shadows, 
— his own and mine, — for mine must equally 
obey him, and accommodate itself to and follow 
all his movements. 

When I once saw my poor shadow again, after 
so long an absence, and beheld it degraded to so 
vile a service, whilst I on its account was in such 
unspeakable trouble, my heart broke, and I began 
bitterly to weep. The detested wretch swaggered 
with the plunder snatched from me and impu- 
dently renewed his proposal: — 

“You can yet have it. A stroke of the pen, 
and you snatch therewith the poor, unhappy Mina 


62 The Wonderful History 

from the claws of the villain into the arms of the 
most honored Herr Graf; as observed, only a 
stroke of the pen.” 

My tears burst forth with fresh impetuosity, 
but I turned away and motioned to him to with- 
draw himself. Bendel, who, filled with anxiety, 
had traced me to this spot, at this moment arrived. 
When the kind, good soul found me weeping and 
saw my shadow, which could not be mistaken, in 
the power of the mysterious gray man, he imme- 
diately resolved, were it even by force, to restore 
to me the possession of my property ; and, as he 
did not understand going much about with tender 
phrases, he immediately assaulted the man with 
words, and, without much asking, ordered him 
bluntly to allow that which was my own instantly 
to follow me. Instead of answer, he turned his 
back and went. But Bendel up with his buck- 
thorn cudgel which he carried, and, following on 
his heels, without mercy and with reiterated com- 
mands to give up the shadow, made him feel the 
full force of his vigorous arm. He, as accus- 
tomed to such handling, ducked his head, set up 
his shoulders, and with silent and deliberate steps 


of Peter SchlemihL 


63 


pursued his way over the heath, at once going 
off with my shadow and my faithful servant. I 
long heard the heavy sounds roll over the waste, 
till they were finally lost in the distance. I was 
alone, as before, with my misery. 


64 


The Wonderful History 


CHAPTER VI. 

Left alone on the wild heath, I gave free 
current to my countless tears, relieving my heart 
from an ineffably weary weight. But I saw no 
bound, no outlet, no end to my intolerable misery; 
and I drank besides with savage thirst of the 
fresh poison which the Unknown had poured 
into my wounds. When I called the image of 
Mina before my soul, and the dear, sweet form 
appeared pale and in tears, as I saw her last in 
my shame, then stepped the shadow of the impu- 
dent and mocking Rascal between her and me; 
I covered my face and fled through the wild. 
But the hideous apparition left me not, but pur- 
sued me in my flight till I sank breathless on the 
ground and moistened it with a fresh torrent of 
tears. 

And all for a shadow ! And this shadow a 
pen-stroke had obtained for me. I thought on 
the strange proposition and my refusal. All was 


of Peter Schlemihl. 65 

chaos in me. I had no longer either judgment 
or mastership of thought. 

The day went over. I stilled my hunger with 
wild fruits, my thirst in the nearest mountain 
stream. The night fell ; I lay down beneath a 
tree. The damp morning awoke me out of a 
heavy sleep in which I heard myself rattle in the 
throat as in death. Bendel must have lost all 
trace of me, and it rejoiced me to think so. I 
would not return again amongst men before whom 
I fled in terror like the timid game of the moun- 
tains. Thus I lived through three weary days. 

On the fourth morning I found myself on a 
sandy plain bright with the sun, and sate on the 
fragment of a rock in its beams, for I loved now 
to enjoy its long-withheld countenance. I still 
fed my heart with its despair. A light rustle 
startled me. Ready for flight, I threw round 
me a hurried glance; I saw no one, but in the 
sunny sand there glided past me a human 
shadow, not unlike my own, which, wandering 
there alone,^ seemed to have got away from 

1 The notion of a human shadow escaping from its possessor 
and independently wandering about by itself on the sunny sand is 


66 


The Wonderful History 


its possessor. There awoke in me a mighty 
yearning. “ Shadow,” said I, “ dost thou seek 
thy master I will be he.” And I sprang for- 

a delightful absurdity of the most willful sort, reminding us of the 
laughable extravagancies of Munchausen. It is a satire on that 
empirical philosophy which holds that the material order is the 
elusive reality, the ideal order an empty delusion. Those who 
think thus reach only vacant and quasi universals, mere collec- 
tions by abstractive generalizations from physical phenomena, 
instead of rising to the creative archetypes in the exemplar mind 
of the First Principle from whose eternal substance all else is 
derivative shadows and reflections. They entirely overlook the 
necessary presuppositions without whose conditioning cooperation 
no physical objects could possibly exist. Number, force, space, 
time, motion, are not material phenomena, but are the logical con-' 
ditions requisite for the emergence of any such show. Now, logi- 
cal conditions imply the Logos, as every thinking carries a thinker. 
Hence material phenomena themselves prove and reveal the exist- 
ence of spirit, purpose, self-determined expression. And these 
concepts, so far from being vacuous abstracts, are the primordial 
concretes, the ideal realities which yield to our intuitive contem- 
plation God, freedom, and immortality. No abstraction whatever 
can exist save as the act 'of an abstractor. Every abstraction is, 
self-evidently, the result of an abstracting act performed upon a 
preexistent concreteness. All the contents of these freighted 
propositions are obviously involved in the unquestionable fact that 
no shadow can possibly appear in the order of sense except as the 
direct consequence of causes previously existent and operative in 
the ideal order. A shadow is the unsubstantial form thrown on 
some supporting ground by an object whose opaque matter ob- 
structs the light and excludes it from the outlined area behind. 
It is not an entity at all. It is absolutely incapable of independ- 
ence. It is, in its ultimate definition, purely a phenomefial modi- 


of Peter Schlemihl, 


67 


ward to seize it. I thought that if I succeeded 
in treading on it so that its feet touched mine, it 
probably would remain hanging there and in 
time accommodate itself to me. 

The shadow, on my moving, fled before me, 
and I was compelled to begin a strenuous chase 
of the light fugitive, for which only the thought 
of rescuing myself from my fearful condition 
could have endowed me with the requisite vigor. 
It flew towards a wood at a great distance, in 
which I must of necessity have lost it. I per- 
ceived this; a horror convulsed my heart, in- 
flamed my desire, added wings to my speed; I 
gained evidently on the shadow, I came con- 
tinually nearer, I must certainly reach it. Sud- 
denly it stopped and turned towards me. Like 

Jication resulta7it from the interaction of other phenojnena. But 
all phenomena are revelatory manifestations of their hidden causes. 
Every phenomenon is the apparitional unveiling of its noumenon. 
Furthermore, all phenomena and all noumena are interrelated in 
one continuous system of reality, each part of which is pervaded 
and unified by the indivisible whole. We can no more account 
for our human experience without the causative ideas of God — 
purposiveness, liberty, infinity — than we can understand the pro- 
duction of an abstract shadow without presupposing the concrete 
reality of a ground, a light, and an intervening body. 


68 The Wonderful History 

a lion on its prey, I shot with a mighty spring 
forward to make seizure of it, and dashed unex- 
pectedly against a hard object. Invisibly I re- 
ceived the most terrible blows on the ribs that 
mortal man ever felt. 

The effect of the terror in me was convulsively 
to close my arms and firmly to enclose that which 
stood unseen before me. In the rapid transaction 
I plunged forward to the ground, but behind and 
under me was a man whom I had embraced and 
who now first became visible. 

The whole occurrence became now very natu- 
rally explicable to me. The man must have carried 
the invisible bird’s nest which renders him who 
holds it, but not his shadow, imperceptible, and 
had now cast it away. I glanced round, soon 
discovered the shadow of the invisible nest itself, 
leaped up and towards it, and did not miss the 
precious prize. Invisible and shadowless, I held 
the nest in my hand. 

The man swiftly springing up, gazing round 
instantly after his fortunate conqueror, descried 
" on the wide sunny plain neither him nor his 
shadow, for which he sought with especial avidity. 


of Peter SchlemihL 


69 


For that I was myself entirely shadowless he had 
no leisure to remark, nor could he imagine such 
a thing. Having convinced himself that every 
trace had vanished, he turned his hand against 
himself and tore his hair. To me, however, the 
acquired treasure had given the power and desire 
to mix again amongst men. I did not want for 
self-satisfying palliatives for my base robbery, or, 
rather, I had no need of them ; and to escape 
from every thought of the kind, I hastened away, 
not even looking round at the unhappy one, 
whose deploring voice I long heard resounding 
behind me. Thus, at least, appeared to me the 
circumstances at the time. 

I was on fire to proceed to the forester’s garden 
and there myself to discern the truth of what the 
Detested One had told me. I knew not, how- 
ever, where I was. I climbed the next hill in 
order to look round over the country, and per- 
ceived from its summit the near city and the 
forester’s garden lying at my feet. My heart 
beat violently and tears of another kind than 
what I had till now shed rushed into my eyes. 
I should see her again ! Anxious desire hastened 


70 


The Wonderful History 


my steps down the most direct path. I passed 
unseen some peasants who came out of the city. 
They were talking of me, of Rascal, and the 
Forest-master; I would hear nothing; I hurried 
past. 

I entered the garden, all the tremor of expec- 
tation in my bosom. I seemed to hear laughter 
near me. I shuddered, threw a rapid glance 
round me, but could discover nobody. I ad- 
vanced farther. I seemed to perceive a sound as 
of man’s steps at hand, but there was nothing to 
be seen. I believed myself deceived by my ear. 
It was yet early, no one in Graf Peter’s arbor, the 
garden still empty. I traversed the well-known 
paths. I penetrated to the very front of the 
dwelling. The same noise more distinctly fol- 
lowed me. I seated myself with an agonized 
heart on a bench which stood in the sunny space 
before the house door. It seemed as. if I had 
heard the unseen kobold, laughing in mockery, 
seat himself near me. The key turned in the 
door, it opened, and the Forest-master issued 
forth with papers in his hand. A mist seemed 
to envelop my head. I looked up and — horror ! 


of Peter SchlemihL 


71 


the man in the gray coat sate by me, gazing on me 
with a Satanic leer. He had drawn his Tarn-cap 
at once over his head and mine; at his feet lay 
his and my shadow peaceably by each other. He 
played negligently with the well-known paper 
which he held in his hand, and as the Forest- 
master, busied with his documents, went to and 
fro in the shadow of the arbor, he stooped famil- 
iarly to my ear and whispered in it these words : 
“ So, then, you have notwithstanding accepted my 
invitation, and here sit we for once two heads 
under one cap. All right ! all right ! But now 
give me my bird’s nest again ; you have no further 
occasion for it and are too honorable a man to 
wish to withhold it from me. But there needs 
no thanks; I assure you that I have lent it you 
with the most hearty good will.” He took it 
unceremoniously out of my hand, put it in his 
pocket, and laughed at me, and that so loud 
that the Forest-master himself looked round at 
the noise. I sate there as if changed to stone. 

“ But you must allow,” continued he, “ that such 
a cap is much more convenient. It covers not 
only your person, but your shadow at the same 


72 


The Wonderful History 


time, and as many others as you have a mind to 
take with you. See you, to-day again, I conduct 
two of them ” — he laughed again. “ Mark this, 
Schlemihl, what we at first won’t do with a good 
will, that will we in the end be compelled to. I 
still fancy you will buy that thing from me, take 
back the bride (for it is yet time), and we leave 
Rascal dangling on the gallows, an easy thing 
for us so long as rope is to be had. Hear you — 
I will give you also my cap into the bargain.” 

The mother came forth and the conversation 
began. “ How goes it with Mina } ” 

“ She weeps.” 

“ Silly child ! it cannot be altered ! ” 

“ Certainly not ; but to give her to another 
so soon. Oh, man! thou art cruel to thy own 
child.” 

“ No, mother, that thou quite mistakest. When 
she, even before she has wept out her childish 
tears, finds herself the wife of a very rich and 
honorable man, she will awake comforted out of 
her trouble as out of a dream, and thank God and 
us. That wilt thou see I ” 

“ God grant it ! ” 


of Peter SchlemiJiL 


73 


“ She possesses now, indeed, a very respectable 
property ; but after the stir that this unlucky affair 
with the adventurer has made, canst thou believe 
that a partner so suitable as Mr. Rascal could be 
readily found for her ? Dost thou know what a 
fortune Mr. Rascal possesses ? He has paid six 
millions for estates here in the country free from 
all debits. I have had the title deeds in my own 
hands ! He it was who everywhere had the start 
of me; and, besides this, has in his possession 
bills on Thomas John for about five and a half 
millions.” 

“ He must have stolen enormously.” 

“ What talk is that again ! He has wisely 
saved what would otherwise have been lavished 
away.” 

“A man that has worn livery” — 

“ Stupid stuff ! he has, however, an unblemished 
shadow.” 

“ Thou art right, but” — 

The man in the gray coat laughed and looked 
at me. The door opened and Mina came forth. 
She supported herself on the arm of a chamber- 
maid; silent tears rolled down her lovely pale 


74 The Wonderful History 

cheeks. She seated herself on a stool which was 
placed for her under the lime trees, and her father 
took a chair by her. He tenderly took her hand 
and addressed her with tender words, while she 
began violently to weep. 

“ Thou art my good, dear child, and thou wilt 
be reasonable, wilt not wish to distress thy old 
father, who seeks only thy happiness. I can well 
conceive it, dear heart, that it has sadly shaken 
thee. Thou art wonderfully escaped from thy 
misfortunes ! Before we discovered the scandal- 
ous imposition, thou hadst loved this unworthy 
one greatly; see, Mina, I know it, and upbraid 
thee not for it. I myself, dear child, also loved 
him so long as I looked upon him as a great 
gentleman. But now thou seest how different 
all has turned out. What! every poodle has his 
own shadow! and should my dear child have a 
husband — no! thou thinkest, indeed, no more 
about him. Listen, Mina. Now, a man solicits 
thy hand who does not shun the sunshine ; an 
honorable man, who, truly, is no prince, but who 
possesses ten millions — ten times more than 
thou ; a man who will make my dear child 


of Peter SchlemihL 


75 


happy. Answer me not, make no opposition, be 
my good, dutiful daughter ; let thy loving father 
care for thee and dry thy tears. Promise me to 
give thy hand to Mr. Rascal. Say, wilt thou 
promise me this 1 ” 

She answered with a faint voice: “ I have no 
will, no wish further upon earth. Happen with 
me what my father will.” 

At this moment Mr. Rascal was announced 
and stepped impudently into the circle. Mina 
lay in a swoon. My detested companion glanced 
archly at me and whispered in hurried words : 
“ And that can you endure ? What, then, flows 
instead of blood in your veins ? ” He scratched 
with a hasty movement a slight wound in my 
hand ; blood flowed, and he continued : “Actually 
red blood ! So sign, then ! ” I had the parch- 
ment and the pen in my hand. 


76 


The Wonderful History 


CHAPTER VII. 

My wish, dear Chamisso, is merely to submit 
myself to thy judgment, not to endeavor to bias 
it. I have long passed the severest sentence on 
myself, for I have nourished the tormenting worm 
in my heart. It hovered during this solemn 
moment of my life incessantly before my soul, 
and I could only lift my eyes to it with a despair- 
ing glance, with humility and contrition. Dear 
friend, he who in levity only sets his foot out of 
the right road is unawares conducted into other 
paths which draw him downwards and ever down- 
wards. He then sees in vain the guiding stars 
glitter in heaven ; there remains to him no choice ; 
he must descend unpausingly the declivity and 
become a voluntary sacrifice to Nemesis. After 
the false step which had laid the curse upon 
me, I had, sinning through love, forced myself 
into the fortunes of another being; and what 
remained for me but that where I had sowed de- 


of Peter Schlemihl. 


77 


struction, where speedy salvation was demanded 
of me, I should blindly rush forward to the rescue ? 
For the last hour struck! Think not so meanly 
of me, my Adelbert, as to imagine that I should 
have regarded any price that was demanded as 
too high; that I should have begrudged any- 
thing that was mine even more than my gold. 
No, Adelbert 1 But my soul was possessed with 
the most unconquerable hatred of this mysterious 
sneaker along crooked paths. I might do him 
injustice, but every degree of association with 
him maddened me. And here stepped forth, as 
so frequently in my life, — and as especially often 
in the history of the world, — an event instead of 
an action. Since then I have achieved reconcili- 
ation with myself. I have learned, in the first 
place, to reverence Necessity; and, what is more 
than the action performed, the event accom- 
plished — her property. Then I have learned 
to venerate this Necessity as a wise Providence 
which lives through that great collective Machine 
in which we officiate simply as cooperating, im- 
pelling, and impelled wheels. What shall be, 
must be ; what should be, happened, and not with- 


78 


The Wonderful History 


out that Providence which I ultimately learned 
to reverence in my own fate and in the fate of 
her on whom mine thus impinged. 

I know not whether I shall ascribe it to the 
excitement of my soul under the impulse of such 
mighty sensations, or to the exhaustion of my 
physical strength, which during the last days such 
unwonted privations had enfeebled; or whether, 
finally, to the desolating commotion which the 
presence of this gray fiend excited in my whole 
nature : be that as it may, as I was on the point 
of signing, I fell into a deep swoon, and lay a 
long time as in the arms of death. 

Stamping of feet and curses were the first 
sounds which struck my ear as I returned to 
consciousness. I opened my eyes : it was dark ; 
my detested attendant was busy scolding about 
me. “ Is not that to behave like an old woman ? 
Up with you, man, and complete offhand what 
you have resolved on, if you have not taken 
another thought, and had rather blubber ! ” I 
raised myself with difficulty from the ground 
and gazed in silence around. It was late in 
the evening; festive music resounded from the 


of Peter Schlemihl, 


79 


brightly illuminated forester’s house ; various 
groups of people wandered through the garden 
walks. One couple came near in conversation 
and seated themselves on the bench which I had 
just quitted. They talked of the union this 
morning solemnized between Mr. Rascal and 
the daughter of the house. So, then, it had 
taken place ! 

I tore the Tarn-cap of the already vanished 
Unknown from my head and hastened in brood- 
ing silence towards the garden gate, plunging 
myself into the deepest night of the thicket and 
striking along the path past Graf Peter’s arbor. 
But invisibly my tormenting spirit accompa- 
nied me, pursuing me with keenest reproaches. 
“These, then, are one’s thanks for the pains 
which one has taken to support you, who have 
weak nerves, through the long precious day. 
And one shall act the fool in the play. Good 
Mr. Wronghead, fly you from me if you please, 
but we are, nevertheless, inseparable. You have 
my gold and I your shadow, and this will allow 
us no repose. Did anybody ever hear of a 
shadow forsaking its master? Yours draws me 


8o 


The Worzderful History 


after you till you take it again into favor, and I 
get rid of it. What you have hesitated to do out 
of fresh pleasure, will you, only too late, be com- 
pelled to seek through new weariness and disgust. 
One cannot escape one’s fate.” He continued 
speaking in the same tone. I fled in vain ; he 
relaxed not, but, ever present, insultingly talked 
of gold and shadow. I could come to no single 
thought of my own. 

I struck through unfrequented ways towards 
my house. When . I stood before it and gazed 
at it, I could scarcely recognize it. No light 
shone through the dashed-in windows ; the doors 
were closed; no throng of servants was mov- 
ing therein. There was a laugh near me. 
“ Ha ! ha! so goes it! But you ’ll probably find 
your Bendel at home, for he was the other day 
purposely sent back so weary that he has most 
likely kept his bed since.” He laughed again. 
“ He will have a story to tell ! Well, then, 
for the present, good night ! We meet speedily 
again ! ” 

I had rung repeatedly ; light appeared. Ben- 
del demanded from within who rung. When 


of Peter Schlemihl. 8i 

the good man recognized my voice, he could 
scarcely restrain his joy. The door flew open, 
and we stood weeping in each other’s arms. I 
found him greatly changed, weak and ill; but 
for me — my hair had become quite gray! 

He conducted me through the desolated rooms 
to an inner apartment which had been spared. 
He brought food and wine, and we seated our- 
selves, and he again began to weep. He related 
to me that he, the other day, had cudgeled the 
gray-clad man whom he had encountered with 
my shadow, so long and so far that he had lost 
all trace of me and had sunk to the earth in 
utter fatigue. That after this, as he could not 
find me, he returned home, whither presently 
the mob, at Rascal’s instigation, came rushing 
in fury, dashed in the windows, and gave full 
play to their lust of demolition. Thus did they 
to their benefactor. The servants had fled 
various ways. The police had ordered me, as 
a suspicious person, to quit the city, and had 
allowed only four-and-twenty hours in which to 
get out of their jurisdiction. To that which I 
already knew of Rascal’s affluence and marriage 


82 The Wonde^'ful History 

he had yet much to add. This scoundrel, from 
whom all had proceeded that had been done 
against me, must, from the beginning, have been 
in possession of my secret. It appeared that, 
attracted by gold, he had contrived to thrust 
himself upon me, and at the very first had pro- 
cured a key to the gold cupboard, where he had 
laid the foundation of that fortune whose aug- 
mentation he could now afford to despise. 

All this Bendel narrated to me with abundant 
tears, and then wept for joy that he again beheld 
me, again had me, and that, after he had long 
doubted whither his misfortune might have led 
me, he saw me bear it so calmly and collectedly ; 
for such an aspect had despair now assumed in 
me. I beheld my misery unchangeably before me ; 
I had wept out to it my last tear ; not another 
cry could be extorted from my heart ; I presented 
to it my bare head with chill indifference. 

“Bendel,” I said, “thou knowest my lot. Not 
without earlier blame has my heavy punish- 
ment befallen me. Thou, innocent man, shalt 
no longer bind thy destiny to mine. I do not 
desire it. I ride to-night still forward: saddle 


of Peter SchlemihL 


33 


me a horse ; I ride alone. Thou remainest ; it 
is my will. Here still must remain some chests 
of gold: that retain thou; but I will, alone, wan- 
der incessantly through the world ; but if ever a 
happier hour should smile upon me, and fortune 
look on me with reconciled eyes, then will I 
remember thee, for I have wept upon thy firmly 
faithful bosom in heavy and agonizing hours.” 

With a broken heart was this honest man 
compelled to obey this last command of his 
master, at which his soul shrunk with terror. I 
was deaf to his prayers, to his representations, 
blind to his tears. He brought me out my steed. 
Once more I pressed the weeping man to my 
bosom, sprang into the saddle, and under the 
shroud of night hastened from the grave of my 
existence, regardless which way my horse con- 
ducted me, since I had longer on the earth no 
aim, no wish, no hope. 


84 


The Wonderful History 


CHAPTER VIII. 

A PEDESTRIAN sooH joined me, who begged, 
after he had walked for some time by the side 
of my horse, that, as we went the same way, he 
might be allowed to lay a cloak, which he car- 
ried, on the steed behind me. I permitted it in 
silence. He thanked me with easy politeness 
for the trifling service, praised my horse, and 
thence took occasion to extol the happiness and 
power of the rich, and let himself, I know not 
how, fall into a kind of monologue, in which he 
had me now merely for a listener. 

He unfolded his views of life and of the world, 
and came very soon upon metaphysics, in which 
the ultimate pretension extended to the discovery 
of the word that should solve all mysteries. He 
stated his premises with great clearness and pro- 
ceeded to the proofs. 

Thou knowest, my friend, that I have clearly 
discovered, since I have run through the schools 


of Peter SchlemihL 


85 


of the philosophers, that I have by no means 
a turn for philosophical speculations, and that 
I have totally renounced for myself this field. 
Since then I have left many things to them- 
selves ; abandoned the desire to know and to 
comprehend many things; and, as thou thyself 
didst advise me, have, trusting to my common 
sense, followed as far as I was able the voice 
within me on the direct course. Now this rhet- 
orician seemed to me to raise, with great talent, 
a firmly put together fabric, which was at once 
self-based and self-supported, and stood as by an 
innate necessity. I missed, however, in it com- 
pletely what most of all I was desirous to find, 
and so it became for me merely a work of art, 
whose ornamental compactness and complete- 
ness served only to charm the eye ; nevertheless, 
I listened willingly to the eloquent man who 
drew my attention from my grief to him; and 
I would have gladly yielded myself wholly up 
to him, had he captivated my heart as well as 
my understanding. 

Meanwhile the time had passed, and, unob- 
served, the dawn had already enlightened the 


86 


The Wonderful History 


heaven. I was horrified as I looked suddenly 
up and saw the pomp of colors unfold itself in 
the east, which announced the approach of the 
sun ; while at this hour, in which the shadows 
ostentatiously display themselves in their great- 
est extent, there was no protection from it, no 
refuge in the open country to be descried. And 
I was not alone ! I cast a glance at my com- 
panion, and was again terror-struck. It was no 
other than the man in the gray coat ! 

He smiled at my alarm, and went on without 
allowing me to get in a word. “ Let, however, 
as is the way of the world, our mutual advan- 
tage for a while unite us. It is all in good time 
for separating. The road here along the moun- 
tain range, though you have not yet thought of 
it, is, nevertheless, the only one into which you 
could prudently have struck. Down into the 
valley you may not venture, and still less will 
you desire to return again over the heights 
whence you are come; and this is also exactly 
my way. I see that you already turn pale be- 
fore the rising sun. I will, for the time we keep 
company, lend you your shadow, and you, on 


of Peter SchlemihL 


87 


that account, tolerate me in your society. You 
have no longer your Bendel with you ; I will do 
you good service. You do not like me, and I 
am sorry for it; but, notwithstanding, you can 
make use of me. The devil is not so black as 
he is painted. Yesterday you vexed me, it is 
true : I will not upbraid you with it to-day ; and 
I have already shortened the way hither for 
you, — that you must allow. Only just take your 
shadow again awhile on trial.” 

The sun had ascended ; people appeared on 
the road ; I accepted, though with internal re- 
pugnance, the proposal. Smiling, he let my 
shadow glide to the ground, which immediately 
took its place on that of the horse, and trotted 
gaily by my side. I was in the strangest state 
of mind. I rode past a group of country people, 
who made way for a man of consequence rev- 
erently and with bared heads. I rode on, and 
gazed with greedy eyes and a palpitating heart 
on this my quondam shadow, which I had now 
borrowed from a stranger, yes, — from an enemy. 

The man went carelessly near me, and even 
whistled a tune, — he on foot, I on horseback. 


88 


The Wonderful History 


A dizziness seized me ; the temptation was too 
great ; I suddenly turned the reins, clapped 
spurs to the horse, and struck at full speed into 
a side path. But I carried not off the shadow, 
which at the turning glided from the horse and 
awaited its lawful possessor on the highroad. 
I was compelled with shame to turn back. The 
man in the gray coat, when he had calmly fin- 
ished his tune, laughed at me, set the shadow 
right again for me, and informed me that it 
would then only hang fast and remain with me 
when I was disposed to become the rightful 
proprietor. “ I hold you,” continued he, “ fast 
by the shadow, and you cannot escape me. A 
rich man like you needs shadow, — it cannot be 
otherwise, — and you only are to blame that you 
did not perceive that sooner.” 

I continued my journey on the same road ; 
the comforts and the splendor of life again sur- 
rounded me ; I could move about freely and con- 
veniently, since I possessed a shadow, although 
only a borrowed one ; and I everywhere inspired 
the respect which riches command. But I car- 
ried death in my heart. My strange companion, 


of Peter SchlemihL 


89 


who gave himself out as the unworthy servant 
of the richest man in the world, possessed an 
extraordinary professional readiness, prompt and 
clever beyond comparison, the very model of 
a valet for a rich man, but he stirred not from 
my side, perpetually directing the conversation 
towards me, and continually blabbing out the 
most confidential matters; so that at length, 
were it only to be rid of him, I resolved to set- 
tle the affair of the shadow. He was become as 
burdensome to me as he was hateful. I was even 
in fear of him. He had made me dependent on 
him. He held me, after he had conducted me back 
into the glory of the world which I had fled from. 
I was obliged to tolerate his eloquence upon my- 
self, and felt, in fact, that he was in the right. A 
rich man in the world must have a shadow, and 
so soon as I desired to command the rank which 
he had contrived again to make necessary to me, 
I saw but one issue. By this, however, I stood 
fast ; — after having sacrificed my love, after my 
life had been blighted, I would never sign away 
my soul to this creature for all the shadows in the 
world. I knew not how it would end. 


90 


The Wonderful History 


We sat one day before a cave which the 
strangers who frequent these mountains are ac- 
customed to visit. We heard there the rush of 
subterranean streams roaring up from immeasur- 
able depths, and the stone cast in seemed, in its 
resounding fall, to find no bottom. He painted 
to me, as he often did, with a vivid power of 
imagination and in the lustrous charms of the 
most brilliant colors, the most carefully finished 
pictures of what I might achieve in the world by 
virtue of my purse, if I had but once my shadow 
in my possession. With my elbows rested on 
my knees, I kept my face concealed in my hands 
and listened to the false one, my heart divided 
between the seduction and my own strong will. 
In such an inward conflict I could no longer 
contain myself, and the deciding strife began. 

“You appear, sir, to forget that I have indeed 
allowed you, upon certain conditions, to remain 
in my company, but that I have reserved my 
perfect freedom.” 

“ If you command it, I pack up.” 

He was accustomed to menace. I was silent. 
He began immediately to roll up my shadow. 


of Peter SchlemihL 91 

I turned pale, but I let him proceed. There fol- 
lowed a long pause; he first broke it. 

“You cannot bear me, sir. You hate me; I 
know it ; yet why do you hate me } Is it be- 
cause you attacked me on the highway and 
sought to deprive me by violence of my bird’s 
nest ? Or is it because you have endeavored in 
a thievish manner to cheat me out of my prop- 
erty, the shadow, which was intrusted to you 
entirely on your honor ? I, for my part, do not, 
therefore, hate you. I find it quite natural that 
you should seek to avail yourself of all your ad- 
vantages, cunning, and power. For the rest, that 
you have the very strictest principles, that you 
have a taste which you think is like honor itself, 
— against this I have nothing to say. In fact, 
I think not so strictly as you; I merely act as 
you think.' Or have I at any time pressed my 
finger on your throat in order to bring to me 
your most precious soul, for which I have a 
fancy Have I, on account of my bartered 
purse, let a servant loose on you ? Have I 
sought thus to swindle you out of it ? ” I had 
nothing to oppose to this, and he proceeded: 


92 The Wo 7 iderful History 

“Very good, sir ! very good ! you cannot endure 
me ; I know that very well, and am by no means 
angry with you for it. We must part, that is 
clear; and in fact, you begin to be very weari- 
some to me. In order, then, to rid you of my 
further shame-inspiring presence, I once more 
counsel you to purchase this thing from me.” I 
extended to him the purse : “ At that price ? ” — 
“ No ! ” 

I sighed deeply and added : “ Be it so, then. 
I insist, sir, that we part, and that you no longer 
obstruct my path in a world which it is to be 
hoped has room enough in it for us both.” He 
smiled and replied: “I go, sir; but first let me 
instruct you how you may ring for me when you 
desire to see again your most devoted servant. 
You have only to shake your purse, so that the 
eternal gold pieces therein jingle, and the sound 
will instantly attract me. Every one thinks of 
his own advantage in this world. You see that 
I at the same time am thoughtful of yours, since 
I reveal to you a new power. Oh ! this purse ! 
— had the moths already devoured your shadow, 
that would still constitute a strong bond between 


of Peter SchlemihL 


93 


us. Enough, you have me in my gold. Should 
you have any commands, even when far off, for 
your servant, you know that I can show myself 
very active in the service of my friends, and the 
rich stand particularly well with me. You have 
seen it yourself. Only your shadow, sir, — allow 
me to tell you that, — never again, except on 
one sole condition, is it yours.” 

Forms of the past time swept before my soul. 
I demanded hastily, “ Had you a signature from 
Mr. John ? ” He smiled. “ With so good a friend 
it was by no means necessary.” “ Where is he ? 
I will know it ! ” He plunged hesitatingly his 
hand into his pocket, and, dragged thence by the 
hair, appeared Thomas John’s ghastly, disfigured 
form, and the blue death-lips moved themselves 
with heavy words, — Justo judicio Dei judicatus 
sum; justo judicio Dei condemnatus sum!' I 
cried out with horror, dashing the purse into the 
abyss, “ I adjure thee, in the name of Heaven, 
take thyself hence, and never again show thyself 
in my sight ! ” 

He arose gloomily, and instantly vanished 
behind the masses of rock. 


94 


The Wonderful History 


CHAPTER IX. 

I SAT there without shadow and without money, 
but a heavy weight was taken from my bosom. 
I was calm. Had I lost my love, or had I in 
that loss felt myself free from blame, I believe 
that I should have been happy ; but I knew not, 
however, what I should do. I examined my 
pockets ; I found yet several gold pieces there ; 

. I counted them, and laughed. I had my horses 
below at the inn. I was ashamed of returning 
thither, — I must, at least, wait till the sun was 
gone down ; it stood yet high in the heaven. I 
laid myself down in the shade of the nearest 
trees and fell calmly asleep. 

Lovely shapes blended themselves before me 
in charming dance into a pleasing dream. Mina 
with a flower wreath in her hair floated by me 
and smiled kindly upon me. The noble Bendel 
also was crowned with flowers and went past 
with a friendly greeting. I saw many besides. 


of Peter SchlemihL 


95 


and I believe thee too, Chamisso, in the distant 
throng. A bright light appeared, but no one 
had a shadow, and what was stranger it had by 
no means a bad effect. Flowers and songs, love 
and joy, under groves of palm ! I could neither 
hold fast nor single out the moving, lightly float- 
ing, lovable forms ; but I knew that I dreamed 
such a dream with joy, and was careful to avoid 
waking. I was already awake, but still kept my 
eyes closed in order to retain the fading appari- 
tion longer before my soul. 

I finally opened my eyes ; the sun stood still 
high in the heaven, but in the east ; I had slept 
through the night. I took it for a sign that I 
should not return to the inn. I gave up read- 
ily as lost what I yet possessed there, and de- 
termined to strike on foot into a neighboring 
path, which led along the wood-grown foot of 
the mountains, leaving it to fate to fulfill what 
it had yet in store for me. I looked not behind 
me, and thought not even of applying to Bendel, 
whom I left rich behind me, and which I could 
readily have done. I considered the new charac- 
ter which I should support in the world. My 


g6 The Wonderful History 

dress was very modest. I had on an old black 
garment, which I had already worn in Berlin, 
and which, I know not how, had first come 
again into my hands for this journey. I had 
also a traveling cap on my head, a pair of old 
boots on my feet. I arose and cut me on the 
spot a knotty stick as a memorial, and advanced 
at once on my wandering. 

I met in the wood an old peasant who greeted 
me in a friendly manner, and with whom I 
entered into conversation. I inquired, like an 
inquisitive traveler, first the way, then about the 
country and its inhabitants, the productions of 
the mountains, and many such things. He 
answered my questions sensibly and loqua- 
ciously. We came to the bed of a mountain 
torrent, which had spread its devastations over 
a wide tract of the forest. I shuddered invol- 
untarily at the sun-bright space, and allowed 
the countryman to go first; but in the midst 
of this dangerous spot he stood still and turned 
to relate to me the history of this desolation. 
He saw immediately my defect, and paused in 
the midst of his discourse. 


of Peter SchlemihL 


97 


“ But how does that happen? the gentleman 
has actually no shadow ! ” 

“ Alas ! alas ! ” replied I, sighing, “during a long 
and severe illness my hair, nails, and shadow fell 
off. See, father, at my age, my hair, which is re- 
newed again, is quite white, the nails very short, 
and the shadow — that will never grow again.” 

“ Ay ! ay ! ” responded the old man, shaking 
his head ; “ no shadow ? that is bad ! That was 
a bad illness that the gentleman had.” But he 
continued not his narrative, and at the next 
crossway which presented itself he left me with- 
out saying a word. Bitter tears trembled anew 
upon my cheeks, and my cheerfulness was gone. 

I pursued my way with a sorrowful heart, and 
sought no further the society of men. I kept 
myself in the darkest wood, and was many a 
time compelled, in order to pass over a space 
where the sun shone, to wait for whole hours, 
lest some human eye should forbid me the tran- 
sit. In the evening I sought for a small inn 
in the villages. I went particularly in quest of a 
mine in the monntains where I hoped to get work 
under the oath ; since, besides that my present 


98 


The Wonderful History 


situation made it imperative that I should pro- 
vide for my support, I had discovered that the 
most active labor alone could protect me from 
my own annihilating thoughts. 

A few rainy days advanced me well on the 
way, but at the expense of my boots, whose 
soles had been calculated for the Graf Peter 
and not for the pedestrian laborer. I was al- 
ready barefoot; I must procure a pair of new 
boots. The next morning I transacted this busi- 
ness with much gravity in a village where was 
held a wake, and where in a booth old and new 
boots stood for sale. I selected and bargained 
long. I was forced to deny myself a new pair 
which I would gladly have had, but the extrava- 
gant demand frightened me. I therefore con- 
tented myself with an old pair which were yet 
good and strong, and which the handsome, blond- 
haired boy who kept the stall, for present cash 
payment handed to me with a friendly smile, 
and wished me good luck on my journey. I 
put them on at once, and left the place by the 
northern gate. 

I was sunk very deep in my thoughts and 


of Peter SchlemihL 


99 


scarcely saw where I set my feet, for I was 
pondering on the mine which I hoped to reach 
by evening, and where I hardly knew how I 
should propose myself. I had not advanced two 
hundred strides when I observed that I had got 
out of the way. I therefore looked round me, 
and found myself in a wild and ancient forest 
where the axe appeared never to have been 
wielded. I pressed forward still a few steps, 
and beheld myself in the midst of desert rocks 
which were overgrown only with moss and 
lichens, and between which lay fields of snow 
an.d ice. The air was intensely cold ; I looked 
round — the wood had vanished behind me. I 
took a few strides more — and around me 
reigned the silence of death : the ice on which 
I stood extended itself boundlessly, and a thick, 
heavy fog rested on it. The sun stood blood- 
red on the edge of the horizon. The cold was 
insupportable. 

I knew not what had happened to me ; the 
benumbing frost compelled me to hasten my 
steps; I heard alone the roar of distant waters; 
a step and I was on the ice margin of an ocean. 


loo The Wonderful History 

Innumerable herds of seals plunged rushing be- 
fore me in the flood. I pursued this shore. I 
saw naked rocks, land, birch and pine forests. 
I now advanced for a few minutes right on- 
wards. It was stifling hot. I looked around — 
I stood amongst beautifully cultivated rice-flelds, 
and beneath mulberry trees. I seated myself in 
their shade. I looked at my watch ; I had left 
the market town only a quarter of an hour be- 
fore. I fancied that I dreamed ; I bit my tongue 
to awake myself. I closed my eyes in order to 
collect my thoughts. I heard before me singu- 
lar accents pronounced through the nose. I 
looked up. 

Two Chinese, unmistakable from their Asiatic 
form of countenance, if, indeed, I would have 
given no credit to their costume, addressed me 
in their speech with the accustomed salutations 
of their country. I arose and stepped two paces 
backward ; I saw them no more. The landscape 
was totally changed, trees and forests instead 
of rice-fields. I contemplated these trees, and 
the plants which bloomed around me, which I 
recognized as the growth of southeastern Asia. 


of Peter Schlemihl. 


lOI 


I wished to approach one of these trees, — one 
step, and again all was changed. I marched 
now like a recruit who is drilled, and strode 
slowly, and with measured steps. Wonderfully 
diversified lands, rivers, meadows, mountain 
chains, steppes, deserts of sand, unrolled them- 
selves before my astonished eyes. There was 
no doubt of it, — I had seven-leagued boots on 
my feet. 


102 


The Wonderful History 


CHAPTER X. 

I FELL in speechless adoration on my knees 
and shed tears of thankfulness, for suddenly 
stood my fortune clear before my soul. For 
early offence thrust out from the society of 
men, I was cast for compensation upon Nature, 
which I ever loved ; the earth was given me as 
a rich garden, study for the object and strength 
of my life, and science for its goal. It was no 
resolution which I adopted. I have since then, 
with severe, unremitted diligence, striven faith- 
fully to represent what then stood clear and 
perfect before my eye, and my satisfaction has 
depended on the agreement of the demonstration 
with the original. 

I prepared without hesitation, with a hasty 
survey, to take possession of the field which I 
should hereafter reap. I stood on the heights 
of Thibet, and the sun, which had risen upon 
me only a few hours before, now already stooped 


of Peter SchlemihL 103 

to the evening sky. I wandered over Asia from 
east to west, overtaking him in his course, and 
entered Africa. I gazed about me with eager 
curiosity, as I repeatedly traversed it in all direc- 
tions. As I surveyed the ancient pyramids and 
temples in passing through Egypt, I descried in 
the desert, not far from hundred-gated Thebes, 
the caves where the Christian anchorites once 
dwelt. It was suddenly firm and clear in me, — 
here is thy home ! I selected one of the most 
concealed, which was at the same time spacious, 
convenient, and inaccessible to the jackals, for 
my future abode, and again went forward. 

I passed at the pillars of Hercules over to 
Europe, and when I had reviewed the southern 
and northern provinces I crossed from northern 
Asia over the polar glaciers to Greenland and 
America; traversed both parts of that continent, 
and the winter which already reigned in the 
south drove me speedily back northwards from 
Cape Horn. 

I tarried awhile till it was day in eastern Asia, 
and after some repose continued my wandering. 
I traced through both Americas the mountain* 


104 Wonderful History 

chain which comprehends the highest known 
inequalities on our globe. I stalked slowly and 
cautiously from summit to summit, now over flam- 
ing volcanoes, now snow-crowned peaks, often 
breathing with difflculty ; when reaching Mount 
Elias, I sprang across Behring Strait to Asia. 
I followed the western shores in their manifold 
windings, and examined with especial care which 
of the islands there located were accessible to me. 
From the peninsula of Malacca my boots car- 
ried me to Sumatra, Java, Bali, and Lamboc. I 
attempted, often with danger and always in vain, 
a northwest passage over the lesser islets and 
rocks with which this sea is studded to Borneo 
and the other islands of this archipelago. I was 
compelled to abandon the hope. At length I 
seated myself on the extremest part of Lamboc, 
and, gazing towards the south and east, wept as 
at the fast-closed grating of my prison, that I had 
so soon discovered my limits. New Holland, so 
extraordinary, and so essentially necessary to the 
comprehension of the earth and its sun-woven 
garment, of the vegetable and the animal world, 
with the South Sea and its zoophyte islands. 


of Peter Schlemihl. 105 

was interdicted to me ; and thus, at the very out- 
set, all that I should gather and build up was 
destined to remain a mere fragment! Oh, my 
Adelbert ! what, after all, are the endeavors of 
men ! 

Often did I, in the severest winter of the 
southern hemisphere, endeavor, passing the 
polar glaciers westward, to leave behind me 
those two hundred strides out from Cape Horn, 
which sundered me probably from Van Die- 
men’s Land and New Holland, regardless of my 
return, or whether this dismal region should 
close upon me as my coffin-lid, making desper- 
ate leaps from ice-drift to ice-drift, and bidding 
defiance to the cold and the sea. In vain, — I 
never reached New Holland, but every time I 
came back to Lamboc, seated myself on its 
extremest peak, and wept again with my face 
turned towards the south and east, as at the 
fast-closed bars of my prison. 

I tore myself at length from this spot, and re- 
turned with a sorrowful heart into inner Asia. 
I traversed that farther, pursuing the morning 
dawn westward, and came yet in the night to 


io6 The Wonderful History 

my proposed home in the Thebais, which I had 
touched upon in the afternoon of the day before. 

As soon as I was somewhat rested,- and when 
it was day again in Europe, I made it my first 
care to procure everything which I wanted. 
First of all stop-shoes ; for I had experienced 
how inconvenient it was, when I wished to ex- 
amine near objects, not to be able to slacken my 
stride except by pulling off my boots. A pair 
of slippers drawn over them had completely the 
effect which I anticipated, and later I always 
carried two pairs, since I sometimes threw them 
from my feet without having time to pick them 
up again, when lions, men, or hyenas startled 
me from my botanizing. My very excellent 
watch was, for the short duration of my passage, 
a capital chronometer. Besides this I needed a 
sextant, some scientific instruments and books. 

To procure all this, I made several anxious 
journeys to London and Paris, which, auspi- 
ciously for me, a mist just then overshadowed. 
As the remains of my enchanted gold was now 
exhausted, I easily accomplished the payment 
by gathering African ivory, in which, however, 


of Peter Schlemihl. 107 

I was obliged to select only the smallest tusks, 
as not too heavy for me. I was soon furnished 
and equipped with all these, and commenced 
immediately, as private philosopher, my new 
course of life. 

I roamed about the earth, now determining the 
altitudes of mountains, now the temperature of 
its springs and the air; now contemplating the 
animal, now inquiring into the vegetable tribes. 
I hastened from the equator to the pole, from 
one world to the other, comparing facts with 
facts. The eggs of the African ostrich or the 
northern sea-fowl, and fruits, especially of the 
tropical palms and bananas, were even my ordi- 
nary food. In lieu of happiness I had tobacco, 
and of human society and the ties of love, one 
faithful poodle, which guarded my cave in the 
Thebais and, when I returned home with fresh 
treasures, sprang joyfully towards me, and gave 
me still a human feeling that I was not alone on 
the earth. An adventure was yet destined to 
conduct me back amongst mankind. 


io8 


The Wonderful History 


CHAPTER XL 

As I once wore my boots on the shores of 
the north, and gathered lichens and sea-weed, 
an ice-bear came unawares upon me round the 
corner of a rock. Flinging off my slippers, I 
would step over to an opposite island, to which 
a naked crag which protruded midway from the 
waves offered me a passage. I stepped with 
one foot firmly on the rock, and plunged over on 
the other side into the sea, one of my slippers 
having unobserved remained fast on the foot. 

The excessive cold seized on me. I with dif- 
ficulty rescued my life from this danger, and 
the moment I reached land I ran with the ut- 
most speed to the Libyan deserts, in order to 
dry myself in the sun ; but as I was here exposed, 
it burned me so furiously on the head that I 
staggered back again very ill towards the north. 
I sought to relieve myself by rapid motion, and 
ran with swift, uncertain steps, from west to 


of Peter Schlemihl. 


109 


east, from east to west. I found myself now in 
the day, now in the night ; now in summer, now 
in the winter’s cold. 

I know not how long I thus reeled about on 
the earth. A burning fever glowed in my veins; 
with deepest distress I felt my senses forsaking 
me. As mischief would have it, in my incau- 
tious career I now trod on some one’s foot. I 
must have hurt him; I received a heavy blow, 
and fell to the ground. 

When I again returned to consciousness, I lay 
comfortably in a good bed, which stood amongst 
many other beds in a handsome hall. Some 
one sat at my head ; people went through the 
hall from one bed to another. They came to 
mine, and spake together about me. They 
styled me Number Twelve ; and on the wall at 
my feet stood — yes, certainly it was no delusion 
— I could distinctly read on a black tablet of 
marble in great golden letters, quite correctly 
written, my name, — 

PETER SCHLEMIHL. 

On the tablet beneath my name were two other 


I lo The Wonderful History 

rows of letters, but I was too weak to put them 
together. I again closed my eyes. 

I heard something, of which the subject was 
Peter Schlemihl, read aloud, and articulately, but 
I could not collect the sense. I saw a friendly 
man, and a very lovely woman in black dress, ap- 
pear at my bedside. The forms were not strange 
to me, and yet I could not recognize them. 

Some time went over, and I recovered my 
strength. I was called Number Twelve^ and 
Number Twelve on account of his long beard 
passed for a Jew; on which account, however, 
he was not at all the less carefully treated. 
That he had no shadow appeared to have been 
unobserved. My boots, as I was assured, were, 
with all that I had brought hither, in good 
keeping, in order to be restored to me on my 
recovery. The place in which I lay was called 
the Schlemihlium. What was daily read aloud 
concerning Peter Schlemihl was an exhortation 
to pray for him as the founder and benefactor of 
this institution. The friendly man whom I had 
seen by my bed was Bendel ; the lovely woman 
was Mina. 


of Peter Schlemihl. 


1 1 1 


I recovered unrecognized in the Schlemihl- 
ium, and learned yet farther that I was in 
Bendel’s native city, where, with the remains 
of my otherwise unblessed gold, he had in my 
name founded this hospital, where the unhappy 
blessed me, and himself maintained its superin- 
tendence. Mina was a widow. An unhappy 
criminal process had cost Mr. Rascal his life, 
and her the greater part of her property. Her 
parents were no more. She lived here as a 
pious widow, and practiced works of mercy. 

Once she conversed with Mr. Bendel at the 
bedside of Number Twelve, “ Why, noble lady, 
will you so often expose yourself to the bad at- 
mosphere which prevails here } Does fate, then, 
deal so hardly with you that you wish to die ? ” 

“ No, Mr. Bendel, since I have dreamed out 
my long dream, and have awakened in myself, 
all is well with me ; since then, I crave not, and 
fear not, death. Since then, I reflect calmly on 
the past and the future. Is it not also with a 
still and inward happiness that you now, in so 
devout a manner, serve your master and friend ? ” 
“ Thank God, yes, noble lady. But we have 


1 1 2 The Wonderful History 

seen wonderful things ; we have unwarily drunk 
much good, and bitter woes, out of the full cup. 
Now it is empty, and we may believe that the 
whole has been only a trial ; and, armed with 
wise discernment, await the real beginning. 
The real beginning is of another fashion; and 
we wish not back the first jugglery, and are on 
the whole glad, such as it was, to have lived 
through it. I feel also .within me a confidence 
that it must now be better than formerly with 
our old friend.” 

“ In me, too,” replied the lovely widow, and 
then passed on. 

The conversation left a deep impression upon 
me, but I was undecided in myself whether I 
should make myself known, or depart hence 
unrecognized. I took my resolve. I requested 
paper and pencil, and wrote these words : “ It 
is indeed better with your old friend now than 
formerly, and if he does penance it is the pen- 
ance of reconciliation.” 

Hereupon I desired to dress myself, as I found 
myself stronger. The key of the small ward- 
robe which stood near my bed was brought. 


of Peter Schlemihl. 


113 

and I found therein all that belonged to me. I 
put on my clothes, suspended my botanical case 
— in which I rejoiced still to find my northern 
lichens — round my black garment, drew on my 
boots, laid the written paper on my bed, and as 
the door opened I was already far on the way to 
the Thebais. 

As I took the way along the Syrian coast, on 
which I for the last time had wandered from 
home, I perceived my poor Figaro coming to- 
wards me. This excellent poodle, who had long 
expected his master at home, seemed to desire 
to trace him out. I stood still and called to him. 
He sprang barking towards me, with a thousand 
moving assurances of his inmost and most ex- 
travagant joy. I took him up under my arm, 
for in truth he could not follow me, and brought 
him with me home again. 

I found all in its old order, and returned 
gradually, as my strength was recruited, to my 
former employment and mode of life, except 
that I kept myself for a whole year out of the, 
to me, wholly insupportable polar cold. And 
thus, my dear Chamisso, I live to this day. My 


1 14 The Wonderful History 

boots are no worse for the wear, as that very 
learned work of the celebrated Tieckius, De 
Rebus Gestis Polticelli, at first led me to fear. 
Their force remains unimpaired, — my strength 
only decays ; yet I have the comfort to have 
exerted it in a continuous and not fruitless 
pursuit of one object. I have, so far as my 
boots could carry me, become more fundamen- 
tally acquainted than any man before me with 
the earth, its shape, its elevations, its tempera- 
tures, the changes of its atmosphere, the exhibi- 
tions of its magnetic power, and the life upon 
it, especially in the vegetable world. The facts 
I have recorded with the greatest possible exact- 
ness, and in perspicuous order, in several works, 
and stated my deductions and views briefly in 
several treatises. I have settled the geography 
of the interior of Africa, and of the northern 
polar regions ; of the interior of Asia, and its 
eastern shores. My Historia Stirpium Plan- 
tarum U triusque Orbis stands as a grand frag- 
ment of the Flora Universalis Terrae, and as a 
branch of my Systema Naturae. I believe that I 
have therein not merely augmented, at a moder- 


of Peter Schlemihl. 


115 

ate calculation, the amount of known species 
more than one third, but have done something 
for the Natural System and for the Geography 
of Plants. I shall labor diligently at my Fauna. 
I shall take care that, before my death, my works 
shall be deposited in the Berlin University. 

And thee, my dear Chamisso, have I selected 
as the preserver of my singular history, which, 
perhaps, when I have vanished from the earth, 
may afford valuable instruction to many of its 
inhabitants. But thou, my friend, if thou wilt 
live among men, learn before all things to rev- 
erence the shadow, and then the gold. Wishest 
thou to live only for thyself and for thy better 
self — oh, then! — thou needest no counsel. 


Thoughtful readers of this remarkable story will be 
pleased, no doubt, to have the hidden significance of it, 
its latent lessons, set before them in statements more 
explicit and distinct than have yet been made. The 
whole meaning of the narrative is summed up by its 
author in the sly and semi-satirical exhortation with 
which he closes : “ My friend, while you live among 


ii6 The Wonderful History 

mankind, learn, above all things,, first to reverence your 
shadow, and next your money !"' To elucidate the full 
force of this somewhat obscure and metaphorical sen- 
tence, and raise into clear relief the genuine moral 
teachings of the narrative, we shall have to subdivide 
our explanation and present its contents under three 
heads. 

First, which is more important to the prosperity 
and happiness of a man, the real character he is, or 
the reputation he bears } the substance of his personal 
being, or the shadow he casts in society } There are 
two answers. In the intrinsic world of God, conscious- 
ness and destiny, the former is incomparably the more 
momentous ; but in the conventional world of civiliza- 
tion the latter is often considered, and thus apparently 
made, the essential thing. 

Second, in the influence exerted on our experience 
respectively by money and by the goods that money 
represents, which is superior } Which of these should 
hold the primary, which the secondary, rank in our 
esteem ? Here likewise there are two opposed answers. 
True insight unhesitatingly affirms that mpney is merely 
a symbol, while the goods of life — food, clothing, shel- 
ter, education, social intercourse — are the reality it 
symbolizes. Given a full supply of the goods of life, 
and money is needless. On the contrary, no amount 
of money would be worth anything if unrelated with 


of Peter Schlemihl. 


117 

the goods of life, without which we cannot get along at 
all. Therefore what immediately supports life is the 
real substance, and its emblematic token is only a 
shadow. This is the first answer to our question. But 
a quite different answer passes current in the ordinary 
course of the world. For under the present system of 
civilization mon^y commands ^ purchases, and distributes, 
the goods of life. In this way it becomes the imperious 
lord of the supplies for our wants, and, consequently, 
outranks them all in importance. In fashionable circles 
a man gifted with magnificent genius and nobility, but 
destitute of money, passes for nothing ; while a com- 
monplace lubber, with a million guineas in the bank, is 
a king. The costly substance of the former is neglected 
because he has no pecuniary shadow ; the rich pecuniary 
shadow of the latter is worshipped, notwithstanding his 
unsubstantial worthlessness. The meaning of the sign 
has disappeared in the formal hollowness of the signal. 
The substance and the shadow have changed places. 

Third, the last and deepest lesson tacitly taught by 
the mysterious adventures of Peter Schlemihl is the 
delightful absurdity, the ridiculous logical incoherence, 
involved in the supposition that a negative abstraction 
can exist by itself and operate independently of every- 
thing else. There are very few things in literature 
more delicious in their ironical wit and humor than the 
coolness with which the author assumes that the shadow 


1 1 8 The Wonderful History of Peter Schlemihl, 

of a man is something quite free of any d^endence on 
him who throws it; the perfect innocence with which 
poor Peter describes his shadow as a material object 
which could be picked up and folded together and put 
in the pocket, or which could be frozen to the ground 
and left fhere while its owner walked away ! It is a 
cutting satire on that agnostic philosophy which per- 
sonifies mental abstractions and then substitutes them 
for the causal personality from which alone mental ab- 
stractions can be derived. In this manner personality 
is pulverized into a series of states of consciousness, 
with no permanent identity threading them. So in the 
Darwinian theory of the Origin of Species an arbitrary 
personification of the verbal phrase, Natural Selection, 
is made to work as an intelligent cause, to produce all 
the phenomena of evolution, and to supersede God by 
doing his work in his place ! Natural Selection is not 
a causative entity. It is the abstract expression for a 
process which is the resultant of the various cooperative 
factors involved in the whole Systematic Relationship 
of Being. Philosophy can no more solve the problem 
of evolution without the three concepts. Creator, Crea- 
tion, Creatures, than one can account for the appearance 
of a human shadow without presupposing the three 
facts, a man, a light, and an interception of the light 
by the body of the man. The shadow of nature implies 
the light of God. W. R. Alger. 









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